An old pine door (which I want to retain) has been moved from one side of the doorway to another, meaning that the hinges have had to be swapped around, as has the (1920s) lock mechanism.
In doing this, the rebated hinges have and the lock have now left a hole where they once were. On the hinges it is not particularly ugly as they are not visible when the door is closed, but what about on the lock side?
I don't have the offcuts to fill it, and I'm not certain they would look right even if I did. Any ideas as to what might be a neat and tidy solution to cover the hole(s)?
Best fillers are crossgrained pellets of matching timber. You can make these with a tapered plug cutter and some matching timber (mine are all made from a piece of doorframe I replaced owing to low-end rot). Then you taper out the existing holes with another magic cutter, losing the dark, grungy screwthreaded portion, and insert the plugs. It's fairly important to cut your plugs as cross-grain rather than end grain. Using a dowel in a pencil sharpener gives you end grain plugs that are better for restoring worn holes to take new screws, but won't stain and polish invisibly to hide in the face of a door. If you can't make the plugs, or can't get matching timber, then you cna buy them ready made. Better cabinetry suppliers (Axminster? Robbins in Bristol) have them. My local architectural salvage yard makes them itself, from well-matched Victorian pine, and they give you a handful for free if you buy an old door.
If you're doing this, just buy the two plug cutters and be done. Once you have those, it's easy to do neat patches anywhere you need.
For hinges, or wear around lock bolts, I insert a flat slip of timber in the edge to fill the old rebate.It's usually neatest to slightly enlarge the old rebate with my hinge-fitting router jig first, which gives a cleaner and more regular edge to work to. I've also got an accurate home-made MDF template for routing out slips to fit in neatly. You might do a similar thing on larger keyholes. Otherwise a brass escutcheon plate over a non-functional keyhole is an easy hide for it (so long as it's not on the hinge side!)
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