repair to Oak

[skeetstar]

fellas, I act as the sort of maintenance man at our local church. I've been asked to have a look at a repair to some Oak. There is a set of curved steps up the main dais, side to side the steps are about 15m, and there are three steps - acres of pristine pale Oak.

We have found a small bit of damage, where something has gouged out a fragment of timber 6mm wide by 20mm long. I have the splintered wood that has been gouged out, but it is damaged and gluing it back wont fix all the problem.

I don't want to cut it out and let in a piece if I can possibly get away with it.
I don't want to have to do anything that will involve sanding back, as I wont be able to just 'patch' the finish.

Thoughts presently are: Glue back what I can, then fill the rest with a filler made of epoxy and oak dust. Would need to be careful, as, as I said, I cant sand it back to flat or sand away any wayward filler.

Anyone recommend a better course of action?

 

[custard]

A few points to think about,

-Top quality timber repairs almost always require top quality finishing, as soon as you say you don't want to patch the finish then you're also saying a fairly simple and utilitarian repair is the best you're going to get. And maybe that's entirely appropriate in this case?
-A sawdust and epoxy mix has its place, but in truth it rarely works out exactly like you'd expect. The sawdust behaves more like endgrain, soaking up the finish and turning much darker. It's tricky to sand back to a true and flush surface, especially on a moulding or an arris. It's unlikely that the epoxy will have the same level of surface sheen as the surrounding timber. And it's unlikely you'll be able to level it off without removing the finish in surrounding areas. Just for the record, most experienced finishers are more likely to fill a small void with crystal clear, five minute epoxy rather than an epoxy/sawdust mix. It may sound counter intuitive, but practical experience shows that method is more likely to yield a truly invisible repair.

Personally I'd likely follow one of two routes. For the simplest possible repair I'd glue back in the missing piece and then fill in any tiny voids with top quality hard wax repair sticks such as Konig. At a pinch you could follow a similar method using the easier soft wax repair sticks from manufacturers like Liberon. Alternatively I'd scarf in an Oak patch and then use dyes and pigment match the colour and to form grain lines that bridge across the patch edges before polishing to match the surrounding sheen.

If you want to experiment with the wax approach drop me a PM and I'll send you small some pieces of various Konig waxes together with some hints and tips that'll suffice to get this job done.

Good luck!

 

[skeetstar]

Custard, thank you, I appreciate yer input. I 'll forget the epoxy and dust approach... Thinking it through I can see why clear epoxy might be an option.

I'll definitely glue the piece back in and try the hard was approach. I see that Konig are not far from me in Nuneaton, |I could nip round and see what they have in stock... I see that most of their product seems to come in sets... is that the case or will I be able to buy individual sticks of a particular shade?

I will be a utilitarian repair, but at the same time hundreds of folks will see it, so it has to look good, so would appreciate any tips you could pass on.

Thanks mate

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Remember also that as my uncle used to say - 99% of people won't notice ... and 99% of the people who do notice don't matter. :lol:

 

[bugbear]

fellas, I act as the sort of maintenance man at our local church. I've been asked to have a look at a repair to some Oak. There is a set of curved steps up the main dais, side to side the steps are about 15m, and there are three steps - acres of pristine pale Oak.

Roughly how old are the steps? In an English church this could range from 800 years down to 8... Given that you say it's "Pale"
I suspect the younger end of the scale.

BugBear

 

[marcros]

fellas, I act as the sort of maintenance man at our local church. I've been asked to have a look at a repair to some Oak. There is a set of curved steps up the main dais, side to side the steps are about 15m, and there are three steps - acres of pristine pale Oak.

Roughly how old are the steps? In an English church this could range from 800 years down to 8... Given that you say it's "Pale"
I suspect the younger end of the scale.

BugBear

And wax is going to stand out in 792 years like a saw thumb... (hammer)

 

[MusicMan]

+1 for what Custard said. Consider also thin CA superglue as an alternative for epoxy. It is thinner, so wicks in to the crack very nicely, and stays light. It will depend on the chunk that you are glueing in which is better.

We use sawdust and epoxy or CA to fill holes in woodwind instruments. But they are black anyway, and would, as Custard says, be too dark on a light wood.

 

[yetloh]

I know a repairer who also uses CA to repair cracked guitar necks. Its ability to wick down into a crack is amazing.

Jim

 

[profchris]

This kind of repair is common among instrument makers.

Here is a ukulele neck I made from recycled wood, which had a nasty stain from a corroded steel screw.

The fix is to scoop out an oval section (straight lines never disappear) and glue in a shaped patch.

My patches here were less than perfect because some end grain was visible at the join (I didn't shape the patch properly).

But under finish it's hard to spot the repair.

If this were a repair to a finished neck there would be no question of sanding. Instead, final smoothing is via scraping with a single sided razor blade. Finish is applied to the repair and the finish join scraped back with the blade. In more skilled hands than mine this can be completely invisible.

Matching the previous finish is always hard. And I guess people need to walk on this repair, but 20 x 6 mm should stay attached.