Routing advice

[DFC1047]

I have a couple of oak boards I have glued up, but there a few knots that I want to remove.
If I made a square hole template ,about 3 inches square hole size, I thought I could remove the knots by routing out a square and then filling in with a matching piece of oak.
My question is, what sort of bit do I need. .
I'm thinking straight cut with a bearing, or do use a bush in the base plate.
I have an Axminster catalogue if someone could point to the right one.
Thanks in advance

 

[mseries]

Using a guide bush will mean you could use any straight cutter. Remember the template will need to be larger than the desired recess to compensate for the cutter/guide bush offset. A bearing guided cutter will work but you'll need one that isn't too long for your template and desired depth of recess.

Usually a template with no sharp corners is better such as an oval or circle, then no manual chisel work is required to square off the corners. But making the inlay as square will be easier I admit.

You may wish to look at inlay sets which is a cutter/guide bush/collar combination that means you can use the same cutter and template and guide bush to do both the recess and and the inlay piece. For the recess you add the collar to increase the size of the offset. Trend do some sets, you could read about what I mean on their site.

 

[Racers]

Why remove them its a natural part of the wood?

If they have cracks you can fill them with epoxy.

Will the patches look and natural as the knots?

I like knots.

15th October by Pete Maddex, on Flickr

Pete

 

[JonnyW]

I'm kinda with Pete on the keeping the knot choice.

Unless it's a dead knot that's going to fall out, I would make a feature of it rather than have a routered inset piece that will never really match up properly.

Jonny

 

[DFC1047]

Thanks for that guys.
The knots I want rid of are really quite big holes, unfortunately I had to leave them in the boards just to get the sizes I want d.
I agree that ordinary knots are the features that make wood look good, and I am leaving those well alone.

I only have quarter inch router, what size bit would you advise?

 

[mseries]

.

I only have quarter inch router, what size bit would you advise?

If it was me I'd use 3/8" or 1/2", but choose one with good end cut such as a mortice cutter.[I have a 1/2" mortice cutter]. 1/2" cutter with 1" guide bush makes the offset easy to calculate and measure (1/4"). Smaller the cutter the less material to chisel out to create the square corners.

 

[DFC1047]

Great thank you very much