had a little scare with birch plugs today

were they end grain because that will turn dark with any finish. The trick us to use boiled linseed oil first to seal the end grain and then put your finish on.

-- Tyler, Illinois

I think Tyler knows his stuff. :-)

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

This is actually a way to add detail to the piece.

But if this isn’t a look you care for one method of counteracting this natural tendency is to sand the end grain to a higher grit than the rest of the project (150 vs 320 for example). BLO is ok but you can use other sealers such as shellac or commercially available products.

But one word of caution on the use of sealers. The directions for commercial products call for waiting for no more than 2 hours after application. This is incorrect. For the any sealer to work it must dry. This means waiting overnight before continuing.

But to tell you the truth trying to do this on just the plugs is going to be difficult at best since you have such a small surface area to work with.

Adding details to a piece increases the visual appeal plus it eliminates a lot of headaches in our woodworking lives.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

or buy a plug cutter and cut the plugs form the same wood and grain.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Sometimes the darker plugs in a lighter material can give it a sort of effect please check the following link does it look like this Sorry I’ll send it to you later

-- A. Molloy

ya. i didn’t know that the end grain did that though so it kind of scared me at first. i think that from now on I’ll use those plugs more to give it that sort of visual effect. thanks for the info on preventing that Tyler. if i ever need a face grain plug i think I’ll just use a plug cutter on my friends drill press to make them. thanks for all the help everybody.

Wood cut from the same board (save those scraps). Help in matching grain and color when finishing.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Try wiping the pieces down with mineral spirits, before you put it together and apply the finish, and it will give you an idea of the color to expect.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com