tearout in mahagony

N

neophyte

Member
I'm completing a mahogany Newport Tea Table with leg carvings. I have some tearout in some areas on one of the aprons. I will probably be filling the top and probably applying shellac and Rockhard Table Top Varnish to the top. I'm not completely sure about the other parts of the piece. What do you think is the best way to handle the tearout? Any finishing suggestions would be welcomed as well.
 
You can avoid the tearout in the first place by bandsawing the skirts, planing across the grain with a low angle block plane and then scraping. I would fix the tearout with a sharp cabinet scraper, and moisten the wood slightly first. Sometimes you can file the tearout area with a mill bastard file. If the tearout is significant it's worth reshaping the skirt slightly to get rid of it.
Just my opinion, but I wouldn't finish that table in anything but shellac. If you plan to pour martinis on it you could brush a couple thin coats of Epifanes varnish on it over the last coat of shellac.-Al
 
I agree it's best to avoid tear out in the first place but if you do get it remove it if you can. In those cases when I am left with a few deep chips outs I don't fill them prior to finishing. I have never found a filler that totally disappears under the finish. I find it easier to make an invisible repair with burn in sticks and graining fluid after the finish is applied. It does take a little practice but I think you get better results in the long run.
 
Thank you for the responses thus far. I absolutely agree with you about avoiding tearout.  I hand planed the piece as well as used a card scraper and some 220, 320 and 400 grit sandpaper. Unforntunately , some relativiley deep spots remain on the flat portion of the rail. My question is what is the best procedure/technique for filling the void.

 
I use a few chems. for fillers, but I think the ones that will work best for you are ,Fix Professional Wood Filler made by http://www.stickwithpl.com/  The stuff is made with wood fiber  and is good for shallow holes. It drys very fast and takes stain well.  For deep holes, I use Quik Wood http://polymericsystems.com/    this is an epoxy with about 20 min. open time.  If your working on antiques we should talk about some other methods.  Anyway, the trick is to make the patch level with the surface around it.  I don't sand wood passed 120 grit unless I'm trying to change the way the stain takes or using power sanders. Wood has pores and sanding to higher grits is not going to remove them. Sanding finish is a different story. [I can here the emails popping in already.]  Back to the story, after the surface is level, stain the wood,or  leave it natural,seal with shellac, then if the color is off, French Patch color into the area, or you can use a small brush. You will need a few colors to match the area, but this method has been around for a long time and works well.It can also be reversed if you miss on the color.
 
Another method to fix your tear out that came to mind after reading the other responses is to steal some wood from the back of your rail behind the tear out and piece it in the front. This way the grain will be a perfect match and you can avoid coloring, which is tricky and so I avoid it at all costs. If you do this make sure the grain orientation is the same- don't flip the piece over or turn it around. A Japanese saw is handy for operating on the inside of the rail to get the piece out. Put your label over the hole on the inside.....Al
 
I don't get too crazy about a little tearout. At times tearout is unavoidable when you're planing wood and shows that, well, you planed the wood instead of using a belt sander.
If you have yards of perfectly flat, polished table top, tearout might be a problem. But on vertical apron the only person who is likely to notice a little tearout is yourself.

Howard Steier
 
I agree with Howard that all tear out and other flaws do not always need to be repaired, that is one of the reasons I don't fix flaws until after I apply the initial finish. I'm not suggesting that you throw away your sand paper and card scraper or that you fully finish your piece. I'm talking about flaws like you have that won't go away with normal procedures. After you put your first coat of finish on you can see if the flaws stick out like a sore thumb or not, if they do you fix them, if they don't forget them and move on. Once that first coat is on you can see what color you are trying to match, what ever filler you use, it makes it easier to color your filler to match because you already can see what your wood will look like with finish on it. Most all wood fillers contain a bulking agent usually wood dust and silica ( the silica causes it not to shrink), a binder ( oil, varnish, acrylic, glue ) and a thinner (water, mineral spirits ), because of the silica and binder none of them take stain or finish the same as the wood you are filling, some are better than others but you almost always need to do some kind of touch up, for me it is easier when I can already see what the wood will look like with finish on it.
 
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