HELP broken cabriole leg

Try a crayon

Jim Reed @Tallahassee

>Rocklers and others have colored wax crayons which are very effective in hiding these sorts of cracks. Get one to match the finished wood, rub the crayon into the crack, and polish with an old cloth. Good luck.

How Bad? *LINK*

Bob Smalser, Seabeck, WA

>Depends on how bad it's broke. If all the way thru, I'd let the marine epoxy cure then drill and pin using brass stock-repair pins from Brownells.com.

The pin holes can be countersunk and covered with bungs. Be careful to cut them so the grain matches and line the grain up when gluing in.

Then hide the repairs as shown at the link.

One more point....no aliphatic glue....use marine epoxy....aliphatic glue is unrepairable and poly is only half the strength. Epoxy can be glued over should it ever break again.


Hiding Repairs

Re: HELP broken cabriole leg

Michael R

>You didn't describe the break,nor is there any indication of the age or value of the piece, so I can't be too specific, but I have a couple of suggestions:

If the break fits together cleanly and is not straight across the grain, liquid hide glue has a bond strength nearly as strong as epoxy and has the advantage of being completely reversible if you don't get it right the first time. If there is no side grain to glue to as in the case of a break that is straight across the grain, I usually clean out all the loose, splintered wood so the break fits together cleanlly, and drill matching holes into the broken end of each piece and insert a dowel or a steel rod, glued in with epoxy (for its gap filling qualities.)

As for hiding the repair, that's kind of up to how good you eant it to look. Hide glue takes some stains well, so there os a possibility you could stain the glue line (the surrounding finished areas won't take stain) and finish over it.

What I do is a little more demanding, but you can make the joint invisible enough so you can't see it from 5 feet away. On a good day, the repair is all but invisible. I use dry pigments from Mohawk, Behlen, or Merit Industries and paint the repair to blend in with the surrounding wood. You could do the same with acrylic artist's paints,I think. There are three main secrets: 1. Keep your colors very, very thin. 2. Confine the touchup to the repair only; trying to "blend" the repair into the surrounding finish does NOT work, and looks awful. 3. Match the color of the repair to the LIGHTEST color in the surrounding wood,then lightly paint in the darker grain, connecting the lines of existing grain or figure.

If I am just hiding a glue line. I just use tiny dots of color no bigger across than the glue line is thick, using a #00 sable brush.

Michael R