[quote=Guess who]On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 03:42:53 GMT, "Toller" wrote:

I bought some walnut full
of knot holes.

It's called low-grade wood. Avoid the holes and cut to use for small
projects. If still not enough, accept your lot and be wiser next
time.

Probably the best advice though not the happiest.

It was suggested that you fill them with black - I presume so that they pass as natural knots ?

Another solution is to drill them out with appropriate dowelling drill and cut plugs from matching off cuts-with a conical plug cutter, trying to match up the grain and colour. Glue them in. You need a fixed drill to use this little cutter. It is not perfect but it does work much better than filler.

In this manner I cut out any knots that look as though may be troublesome in future years by their shrinkage and cracking or weeping of resin on items that are to be painted. I am referring to real painting - not three coats of some colour mix off the hardware shelf. Using filler to replace the knots leaves nasty shiny spots that bulge or dimple be you never so careful and are of a different surface texture from the wood.

For larger areas of damage it is possible to inlay which requires very precise workmanship. I have also modified a convenional hole saw of about 40mm by filing the teeth and bending them slightly - and removing the central drill bit - so that it produces a plug that fits snugly into a hole cut by a bigger hole saw. It works well but only in a serious drill press.

Glue is a problem. Modern glues often show milky and transparent glues can leave films that are difficult to detect until after you have polished the work when they stand out like a sore thumb or even throw off the finish. For me the best results still come from real rabit skin glue coloured with vandyke. Still when the work has been planed back and scraped be sure to test any areas near gluing with water which helps to show up glue residue - with fine linseed oil diluted heavily in white spirit which is appropriate if you are using an oiled finish or French polish. The worst of all are the solvent suspended glues which penetrate the grain and require vigorous physical removal.

But let's face it, you are going into furniture restoration before you have built the furniture ! I only go to these lengths when I have a particularly beautiful piece of graining that is marred by one blemish. Sometimes you find this in low grade timber which has been rejected because of knots, borer attack et cetera.

Perhaps you will finish with a beautifull snuff box ?