Best Wood Filler to Match Wood for Furniture Repair, Hardwood Floors, & New Woodwork - Mohawk How To

Wood fillers can be confusing to understand. I prefer to use a burn-in wood filler for furniture repairs, hardwood floors, and new woodworking. You use it after the finish goes on, so you know exactly what color you need to match the wood. Thanks to Mohawk for partnering with us to make this video.

The first demonstration of the Mohawk Quick Fill burn-in sticks is on a wooden box I built. I applied the finish, which shows me the final color of the wood. I then chose a wood filler stick that matched the color. I show this on an area where there was some tear out in the walnut that I couldn't work out with a card scraper. Then I show the use of Quick Fill on the corner splines where there were some minor voids. It's a simple process using a battery-powered soldering iron to apply the wood filler, then level it out with a plastic scraper.

For my woodworking projects, I rarely need wood filler or wood putty, but what I've learned over decades of woodworking experience is that matching wood filler to a project is next to impossible. The reason is that the finish you apply reacts differently to the wood than it does to the wood filler. That's why I like these burn-in wood fillers, because they go on after the finish so you can dial in the perfect match for your project.

The second demonstration of the Quick Fill is on the restoration of a rocking chair. This chair had a split side rail and after I repaired it, there are some pieces missing. I melt Quick Fill into the void with the closest color I have. After scraping it down, I get a sense of how well it matches. I then add different color by melting them into spots where they need to be darker. It's a process that can easily be undone if you make a mistake. Sometimes it takes experimentation to work in color to make the repair disappear.

Mohawk provided me with some Hard Fill, which is designed for hardwood floor and table top repairs. This is a harder product that stands up to more abuse. It goes on the same way as the Quick Fill, but because it's hard, there's a special Hard Fill Levelling Tool that's used to flatten out the filler. I used this to repair two dents on my Hickory hardwood floor. By mixing several colours and adding some grain with a graining marker, you can't find the repair unless you know exactly where it is.

I hope you enjoyed this in-depth video about Mohawk's burn-in wood fillers.

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Contents:
00:00 Best Wood Filler to Match Wood
00:57 Burn-in wood filler for a new woodworking project
03:33 Furniture restoration with burn-in wood filler
13:12 How to repair hardwood floor damage with Mohawk Hard Fill
14:54 Hard fill levelling tool
17:11 Blending wood filler colors to disguise the hard fill on flooring

#mohawk #woodfiller #woodputty

[seanbrotherton]

I could watch this for hours. I think this is a must have skill to learn and appreciate your usual thoroughness. Thanks Scott!

[DonsWoodies]

This brought back memories of a place I worked at just out of high school decades ago. It was a furniture/appliance store and we had a repair department. The head guy in that department was a miracle worker with furniture or any kind of repair on wood or metal surfaces. He would fill cracks, holes, whatever and then paint the grain back in on the wood and I swear you could never find the repair when he was finished. It was amazing to watch. He used those burn in sticks all the time with a little pallet knife, and would have probably loved having that battery powered tool you have.

Thanks for the memories. You do great work.

[byhammerandhand]

There is another kind of product that I used nearly every day for 20 years. Thousands of repairs for furniture stores, moving companies, delivery companies and consumers. They are the hard resin sticks (originally called "shellac sticks") They come in transparent tinted (mostly amber shades) and opaque colors (including black and a variety of whites ). I used a wider blade burn-in knife that I used to both to add in the melted resin and then, with a burn in lube (gel), level it out. Then I rubbed out with steel wool. Top coated with touch up lacquer when needed. Another technique on ring- and semi-porous woods is to take a razor blade or utility knife to score in some graining. Also, if you don't have the color brushes, you can dispense a bit of color from a regular touch up marker on a piece of glass and use a detail brush to draw in the darker grain lines. All that said, the softer sticks are probably better for flooring as they will be more impact resistant. But the resin sticks for things like table tops that will be seen up close. Also, I think the resin sticks have a longer learning curve. But just another option.

[michaelpage]

Mesmerising watching the procedure. Thanks. 😁👍🏻🇦🇺

[robertball]

Loved the example of transitioning from science to art by blending colors and drawing in grain lines.

[Granddad]

Great job, Scott. I need to fix a burn hole in a tabletop, so this is a perfect video for me.

[johnbourne]

I repair leather and vinyl for a living and the most important part of the job is coming as close as possible to making your repair seamless… like it never happened…. Color theory is an art… you got it bro

[Goalsplus]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and practical skills.

[mmmdesignllc]

Congrats on the Mohawk sponsorship. Love their products!!!

[catrid]

Excellent video, thank you so much. You are an excellent instructor!

[hellothisisbob]

Another excellent video Scott! Bedankt

[caroltanzi]

Scott: this was so informative. I like Mohawk products. They have always been quality products. Also, your touch to fixing these little issues is super. The designer in me loves it. Thanks, Carol from California

[aglayalugo]

I love your videos! Thank you for sharing!!

[terrmaso]

Very nice work, and right on time. A local moving company has begun to use my services and scratch and dent items are prevalent. Even asked if I could repair a floor scratch. Looks like I have found the right tools. Thanks for the great video 👍

[wildflower]

Brilliant! I have a date with some scratched furniture tonight!

[jogvanjakupsson]

This reminds me. I painted a small rocking chair for my niece. Because the house has pine floors i decided to glue cork onto the chair to protect the floors. It worked just fine. But beware that not all glues work with cork

[janhammekenbuch]

That's pretty nice... I have some old hardwood floors that my wife managed to ding a bit. Looks like i can solve that problem without changing the floor boards. :-)
Excellent video. :-)

[richardbenjamin]

wonderful Tutorial Richard Lake County Ca.

[Владимир-эоф]

Hello. Thank you for this video. I have a question. Do you cover the wax with varnish or leave it without varnish?

[Vanessa-okys]

Is this a better method for filling nail holes in kitchen cabinets versus trying to fill/match wood filler to the bare unfinished wood?