Filler being dragged out

[RogerS]

I've tried several different fillers with mahogany and nearly all seem to get dragged out of the pores towards the end of the process. For example, Jecofil say wait until the sheen has gone off the filler then drag across the rain to remove the excess. I have tried leaving it to dry totally and then sanding but that does take more work obviously.

Quite prepared to accept that it's my poor technique but I was wondering about using a cabinet scraper rather than cloth in the final stage and wondered if anyone else had tried that?

 

[Matt@]

are we talking about the stuff that resembles mud I've used a credit card in the past and dragged it across the grain. I dont think theres any way at all to completely fill the pores level. The way I use mostly is apply filler and wipe off with hessian. Leeaving filler residue on the surface is a guarentee to disaster as its a sod to shift...

 

[RogerS]

Matt...spot on. Credit card is similar to a scraper. Did it work? I've used hessian but that's when it got dragged out.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Grain filling isn't always a single application process. Sometimes you need to do the job a couple of times, and even three times, but three times is rare in my experience. It doesn't sound as if you are using the wrong technique, but perhaps things will get better with a little more practice. It may be that you're doing something that is not quite as well executed as it should be, but if you've got the basic technique right then carefully observing what's happening, particularly as you take off the excess filler, might suggest ways to leave more filler in the open pores.

It's possible you might find one or two useful tips in this article of mine, although the filling medium used here is very different being plaster of Paris, but you never know. Slainte.

 

[RogerS]

Many thanks for the link.

 

[Matt@]

Matt...spot on. Credit card is similar to a scraper. Did it work? I've used hessian but that's when it got dragged out.

It does seem to work ie you get the feeling its more effective. Thinking aboiut the theory, it should work better than hessian. I dont much like leaving it straight from the card as you are left with filler residue which makes the surface cloudy unless sanded off and sanding isnt always appropriate. Hession tends to leave a cleaner surface. Previous poster mentioned filling it more than once and I can see the sense in this. Fill once let dry. Once filler has dried and settled, fill again and so on. The other thing with cards is you can leave tramlines of filler across the grain if you are not careful...