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Wood- or Grainfiller
I am currently veneering the hull of my boat. I'm using a 2mm sapeli veneer that I've cut into strips about 3 inches wide. When I join the strips together, there are minimal visible joints (see attached image). Also, by fixing the strips with staples, tiny holes appear in the veneer when the staples are removed.
I am thinking about whether it makes sense to work on these irregularities with wood- or grain filler.
Do you have experience with this or a recommendation?
Sorry it has taken me a while to respond to you. I would generally tackle this with something matching the wood or darker than it. Lighter will be very noticeable in the end result but darker not so much.
If I am glueing up any timber that has to be bright finished then I would thicken the epoxy with the West Filleting additive (405) and then colour it to suit. I have a tub of mahogany dust shavings that came out of the bag on my belt sander. In for example a mix of epoxy that is 4 pumps I would put in 3 scoops of filleting additive and 1 of mahogany dust. If you use solely mahogany dust then you end up with an extremely hard glue. The blend of filleting additive will make things a little easier to work when cured.
If your joint needs to have a little flex and resist cracking then use the G-flex resin instead. This is a lot thicker from the outset and may only need a scoop of mahogany dust just for colouration, certainly when you are trying to get it into small plank gaps.
I'd take some dust from scrap stock, a belt sander is the best way to do this and use that so it matches.
i have also thought of mixing mahogany dust into epoxy. I’m just afraid that does not work in my case, because I plan to stain the boat hull in dark red and the epoxy will not absorb the stain. That is reason why i am thinking about stainable wood filler.
Maybe its also an option to first stain the hull and produce some dust from similar stained wood and then fill gaps and holes.
I would try a test on a piece of scrap. Leave an intentional gap, fill it with your sawdust and epoxy mix and try staining over it to see how it looks. This is another reason for aiming darker with the filler than lighter, even if the stain doesn't take, if your glue lines end up darker than the stained wood then the seams will not stand out. If your glue lines end up lighter then you have to get a bit more creative, I have used a sharpie before now to darken down a glue line that is visible during the varnish stages!