Filler for nail holes in cherry

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H

HSteier

Well-known member
I'm making a large armoire/entertainment center in cherry. There is a lot of molding and there are a lot of nail holes to fill. The finish will be polyurethane, no stain. Are there any favorite fillers that match cherry well? What about shellac sticks?  Or should I finish first and then fill with wax sticks after finishing?

All help appreciated.

Howard Steier
 
Howard,

I have always used the wax sticks for nail holes rather than try to burn in shellac. If you are using wax sticks on an unstained cherry piece, make sure you choose a color that will be close to the aged look of cherry. Nothing looks worse than a nice burgundy cherry with tan dots where the nail holes have been filled!

Mark
 
Howard,

I use drywall spackle colored with tinting powders.  It works good on stained woods but I never tried it on unstained woods.  Good luck.

Dennis Bork
Antiquity Period Designs, Ltd.
 
I have used cherry sanding dust with shellac as nail hole filler but it comes out much too dark for cherry. This is a good choice for mahogany and an excellent choice for walnut but not good for cherry.

Howard Steier
 
Several years ago an awesome 18th C furnituremaker outside Colonial Wmsburg gave me a bag of "beauty brads". They were for attaching moulding invisibly. They did not required filler in mahogany or walnut although they might show on cherry. I've never found them anywhere but I recommend them if they can be found. They were somewhat like needles. They were hard to use because they were brittle and I broke several before driving them in but they were indeed invisible. I'd be curious to know if others use them and where they can be purchased.
John
 
Here is a place where they say they manufacture "beauty brads":

www.whbagshaw.com/brads.html

From the website:

The W.H. Bagshaw Company has been producing beauty brads since the late 1800’s. The brads or sprigs as they are sometimes called are Heat Treated and finished in either a BLACK  FINISH, CEMENT COAT, SEMI or PLAIN. Brads, Sprigs and or Beauty Brads are used for hardwood floor replacement and molding applications. Always use caution when working with Brads. Observe OSHA safety guidelines and wear safety glasses.

Now the challenge would be to find where to buy them in retail quantities less than a ton!

Kent Ryan

 
Call the Olde Mill cabinet shop. I recall they had some of those brads. I don't think they used the name beauty brads, but they worked just the way you described.
 
I have used these for years. They are hardened brads the reason being that as you drive them in to within the last 3/16" or so you can hit them with a glancing blow and they will break below the surface and not need setting. A local company(for me) in GSO,NC did have these in small packets a couple years ago. I would be glad to  check and see if they are still available and let you know if anyones interested. The new 23GA pinners will do the same thing I've had a new Spotnail that I bought on eBay for less than $100 and it does a fantastic job 3/8" - 1-1/4" pins are available for this gun, so far I've just used up to an 1". The hole left is almost undetectable and easily filled by stain and/ or glaze.
 
hi Howard, your question last October inspired this. I myself save the final  sanding dust from the timber I'm cleaning up, and store it for this purpose/filler. I then pick out a match & mix it with PVA glue, fill the hole proud, when dry clean flat, I find I can mix different shades of dust,to match all variation's in the timber. hope you can try this  method next time? instead of buying stopper's.
 
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