[Nancy_G]

I received an email from a carving friend asking this:
' Do you have any ideas on what I can do with a carving I'm doing that I cut the piece out too close to the split end grain of the 3' basswood? As I continue to carve, the worst is carved off though there are still 3 good cracks. Can I use glue as a filler then putty? '

Do any of you have any advice I can pass along to him? He uses a transparent paint stain so my methods (suitable for opaque paint) won't work. And his carving is MUCH too nice and valuable to just scrap the piece.
Thanks..... all help appreciated.

[woody01]

How about trying some Quickwood?

Woody01

Nancy, that transparent paint presents a problem for filling and matching, but they might try this; I just used it on a balsam walking stick (no carving) that was just stained and varnished. After staining, sealing and giving several coats od varnish, I mixed up a pretty good quantity of epoxy (clear) and filled several long longitudianl cracks. the epoxy filled the craks, stabilized the stick from further cracking and has a look like that of a crack that is SUPPOSED to be there. The epoxy filled the gap, but leaves a clear filler in it.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

What Al said, plus if you want, you can put sawdust of the same type wood into the epoxy heavy enough that it looks like the wood and you can't see the epoxy.

I would try soaking the carving in warm water and then drying slowly; sometimes this will relax the wood and close the cracks.
Either way, it doesn't cost anything to try it first.

[jamesfa]

you could try what a wood turner friend showed me.
fill the crack with fine saw dust from your carving,and then pour on a little Cyanoacrylate glue.This glue is very thin and soaks into the saw dust sealing up the crack leaving a very this line a little darker the original wood.

Jamesfa

[Colin_Partridge]

Nancy,
Sorry I have taken so long to reply to your post but I kept meaning to and you got lost down the list my memory is not what it used to be. Better late than never I always say, I have had tremendous sucess with a product called 'RayCrete' it is a multi mender and is made in the US. It comes in a two container package. What I like about it is that it takes a while to set up and when you pour it it goes into all the cracks and crevises. You simply make a dam so it doesnt run out scotch tape will do pour it in and then as it sets up you can carve it. Wonderful stuff. Once it is hard its like rock. I have found that if you are staining a piece mix some of the stain with the RayCrete and it will take on almost the same colour of the wood it will be hard to tell where the crack is.
Hope this helps
Colin