Tuesday How-To

I thought I'd take a minute to share a little how-to with you. I mean after all, I've given you recipes for rhubarb pie, ratatouille and eggplant Parmesan; I figured it was time to reaffirm my identity as a man out there is a blogosphere that seems to be very feminine.
While I was working on my flooring over the last few weeks, I have been running over in my head how I was going to handle all of the spaces, nicks and nail holes that enevitably show up when doing any type of large woodworking project. I've tried both water based and oil based wood fillers, and have never really been able to find one that I was happy with. Either the texture is all wrong, or I use it once and then it's dryed out before I need it again. Or maybe in th color is the problem; with a wood like red oak, there's such a wide variety of colors that it's hard to get a good match. Either it's too dark or too light, the later being the worst of the two and can look like you spilt rice on the ground if your not careful. So what was my solution? Make my own of course!

Here's the "recipe":
• sawdust,

• Wood Glue,

• Water

That's it. I used wood dust from the catcher on my sander. It is very fine, almost the consistancy of flour. I put a bit in a plastic cup, addedenough glue to adhere it all together into a very thick paste. To this paste I added a little bit, (1/2 teaspoon maybe) of water, just enough to loosen the past into a consistancy that I could work with. I was very pleased with the results. I found that it worked in well, and could be sanded easily. I do think that the next time that I use it I would try wiping it with a damp sponge to clean the excess out of the grains. It did sand down completely but took a little while.

My Dad says I'm a craftsman, that's why I like to own every aspect of my projects. My kids would just tell you I'm just cheap. As for me, I'm afraid a day will soon come when so many of our skills and knowledge base will be lost if we don't take the time to practice and hand these skills down. I enjoy knowing that I made it, that whether or not a local hardware store has it or not, I can accomplish my goal. I encourage you to experiment with whatever your interests are. I can't think of many things out there that we couldn't simplify and do it ourselves at least to some degree. I think you'll find a huge amount of satisfaction in it.

P~