Stainable Wood Filler

Elegant and sturdy as wood is, there are things which make wood into a vulnerable substance. Moisture and cracks as a result of that are the worst enemies of wood. However sturdy the wood is, once it is exposed to moisture and rot, it is gone. Thanks to the scientific advancement and technology, there are ways to fill up cracks in wood, protect it from moisture and also smoothen the unevenness of the wooden surface. Wood sealers, varnish or different types of stains, treated with chemicals are such products. Another of such products is a stainable wood filler. The text to follow will throw some light on this product.

What are Wood Fillers and Stainable Wood Fillers?

Wood fillers are used to fill the open cells or small crevices in open -grain wood types like oak, ash, chestnut, elm, mahogany, walnut and a few others. These are an important aspect of woodworking. What these fillers do once they are used on the wood is that these bring about a leveling by filing up the cells and crevices as mentioned. Wood fillers (stainable or otherwise) do not let the varnish finish sink and thus prevent the wood from getting the pitted or rippled effect. Moreover, a stainable wood filler is composed of real wood fibers for good quality sanding. It is also used in high speed sanders. In addition to that, an easy water clean up is another brownie point as far as a woodfiller is concerned. Stainable filler, for exterior use as well as interior, is a good option. Simply, put, stainable wood filler is a pre mixed and colored wood filler.

Categories of Wood Fillers

After getting the hang of what is wood filler which is stainable, we will move on to the types of wood fillers. There are different types of wood fillers, from semi transparent to opaque. Here is more.

Paste and Liquid Fillers
While paste wood stainable fillers are semi transparent and are used in conjunction with open grain wood, the liquid filler is transparent and is used with close grain wood. A binder, a bulking agent and a solvent is what makes a grain wood filler. These are better used for horizontal surfaces.

Commercial and Non Commercial
Actually, this is just a categorization of stainable wood filler. To start with, the non commercial fillers are the ones which are mixed by carpenters traditionally. It can be made mixing fine sawdust into a paste with carpenter's white or yellow glue, shellac, or hide glue. After the filler dries, sand and seal using a coat of shellac or hide glue. When it comes to commercial wood fillers, you have a range of options. You gypsum based, epoxies, vinyl based, and cellulose based wood fillers. While the vinyl based comprise Most of these products are calcium carbonate (chalk), mixed with a polyvinylacetate dispersion or emulsion as the vehicle or binder, the gypsum filler consists of mineral powders mixed with water for forming a crystalline filler which does not shrink or pull away from the edges of the filled area. The epoxies are made up of two-part, petroleum-based resin products and finally, the cellulose based wood fillers are simply combinations of wood fiber and binder available.

In addition to all these, another type of stainable wood filler is cosmetic filler. The paste wood filler comes in this category. As far as paste wood fillers are concerned, sometimes a color different from the wood is used to make the grain stand out. Oil based crayons and colored fillers, non hardening fillers are great for nail holes and tiny dings. These stainable woodfillers do not shrink and come out in wood color rainbow.

At the end of the day, which type of stainable wood filler you use will depend on the type of wood you are looking to work on. Generally the product label will help you decide if that wood filler is suited for your use. Minwax and Elmers are two of the popular wood filler brands. This is where I sign off! Till next time it is adios from me!