Best way to fill a snipe on a small box

[jtpr]

After I got this small box I'm making as a gift glued up and proudly brought it up to show my wife, she said "Uh-oh, did you see this?" On one side is a gouge left from the planner. The material is bird's eye maple. I don't know how I didn't see this, but it isn't THAT noticible, except in certain light, then it jumps right out.

Anyway, I was thinking of taking some sanding dust out of my RO sander and mixing it with some glut and patching it, then sanding again. The finish on this will be a mixture of tung and linseed oil with a bit of wipe on poly. Do ya'll think this will work?

-Jim

[damian penney]

How wide/deep is the gouge? If it isn't too deep I'd just sand the surface flat. I've never tried it but I think you might have a hard time finishing it if you try and fill it (and I'm not sure how good filling it would look either).

[Bob]

I think you would end up with something that looked worse than what you've got. I'd think about a variety of ways to flatten out the surface to the depth of the snipe. I did this on a small jewelry box using a very sharp Stanley no. 8 jointer plane. Depending on the size of the box, you could probably achieve the same result with a belt sander (careful!).

Bob

[Bob]

I think you might end up with something worse than you've got. I'd consider some way to flatten the surface down to the depth of the snipe. I had to flatten the side of a small jewelry box and had good results using a sharp Stanley no. 8 jointer plane. You could probably achieve the same results with a belt sander (careful!).

Bob

[jev]

No - glue and sawdust are always a poor match esp on light wood ligh maple.

Is this really snipe or just a small torn out eye? I have repaired torn eyes by completely finishing the item then filling the eye with CA glue. When glue hardens(do not use accelerator) very carefully level it with card scraper.

[Larry W]

Personally I have never had much success with the glue & dust mix for repairs or filling. It never seems to take stain or finish the same as the surrounding wood, and any glue that gets on bare wood will adversely affect the finish there, as well. For the finish you are trying it may work OK but definitely test it on some scrap first. If the gouge is not too deep, could you just plane or sand it out? That would be my choice on a small project.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Snipe is a deeper cut all across the width of the planer blade usually at the tail end of a board. This sounds like a chip out. Very common on figured wood and especially birdseye.

I would repair it after you are far along in the finish process and near the end. Once you have the color established and a first coat of film finish, or oil (not so effective with poly finishes). Now that you have the color established, you can match the finish better with standard filler putty. If this is really birds eye you can just fill the chips as faux eyes. Just use a darker color like the eyes. I've used an ink pen pen to add grain lines or a knife or chisel to reshape the chipouts to better match other surrounding grain before filling to make the chip look like a little knot. This can actually be a very artistic and pleasing process..

[jtpr]

Right. I think it is probably a lost eye. So I'll try sanding as much as I feel comfortable with, then evaluate it from there. I agree I have never really had much luck with fillers and finish, so I'll avoid that route if possible.

-Jim

[Stephen M]

Fill with epoxy (clear) and level it with a scraper before it cures completely.

-steve