I hate the stuff! Never matches right and leaves an oily smudge 50x bigger than the hole.

I'd much prefer a small nail hole to that crap. Do you think you're fooling me into thinking the wood trim is held on by magical forces?

There. I feel better now.

I am NOT a finish carpenter (beyond the idea that when I'm done, I'm finished...) but I am aware of a trick that the pros used to use:

Where you're going to nail, lift a "splinter", drive and set the nail under it, replace the splinter, glue and sand. Done carefully, you'd never know there was a nail there.

I’ve seen the splinter trick. A little dab of latex caulk does the trick for me.

That's why I like brad nailers. The hole is very discrete. If you adjust the depth perfectly, the brad is flush with the wood surface and much less noticeable.

How I fill a hole depends on how it will be finished.

Don't take that out of context.

By "wood trim" that "doesn't match," I'll assume that you mean stain grade or natural.

I would agree that neat nail holes are not as offensive as awful fill.

Careful matching, good cleanup, using sawdust, lifting as mentioned, there are lots of options.

When at all possible these days, I use pocket screws, or a number of adhesives.

Pin nails, or neat finish nailing, filled with a color at least close to the grain, will look just fine.

 
Back when I was doing millwork (30+ years ago), we used a filler called Famowood. It comes in more than a dozen colors designed to match the wood pretty closely.
 

Another option..... Collect the sawdust or sanding dust from installing. Mix with a little wood glue and make your own putty. It'll take stain better - won't be perfect - but close.

Andrew

They make crayons just for that. Fill up the hole, wipe off the excess. Some elbow grease required.

A color matched “fill stick” ( aka crayon) came with the stained wood crown molding & kitchen cabinets. Nail holes are completely invisible.

Wood putty pretty much sucks, had to use it when I refinished the floors in our old house.

Caulk shrinks when it dries, for white base boards, we use spackle.

quote:

Originally posted by El Cid 92:
Another option..... Collect the sawdust or sanding dust from installing. Mix with a little wood glue and make your own putty. It'll take stain better - won't be perfect - but close.

Andrew

I use this method quite a lot.

I was taught to stain, clear coat then use the minwax colored putty to custom make a putty color that matches then clear coat again.

Sealing the wood first keeps it from staining around the nail hole.

http://eclecticproducts.com/fa...tex-wood-filler.html


if the wood is unfinished I use this and sand right after it's applied. using glue and sawdust on unfinished wood will leave a glue stain.


sanding right after its applied will blend some of the sanding dust right into the filler.


32 years in the cabinet making business and I use nothing else.

A baseball bat manufacturer used Minwax wood filler on bats believe it or not. Putty, resand, and good to go to finishing.

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
if the wood is unfinished I use this and sand right after it's applied. using glue and sawdust on unfinished wood will leave a glue stain.

This was my thought as well. Glue does not take a stain. If you are not careful on just an ordinary joint and don't wipe clean any glue ooze out, it will stand out when stained.
 

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
http://eclecticproducts.com/fa...tex-wood-filler.html


if the wood is unfinished I use this and sand right after it's applied. using glue and sawdust on unfinished wood will leave a glue stain.


sanding right after its applied will blend some of the sanding dust right into the filler.


32 years in the cabinet making business and I use nothing else.

I worked in a cabinet shop for a summer in college. We did the same thing. I'm not sure if that's the brand we used, but glob it on, press in with a putty knife, sand it out, send it off to the stain room.

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
Famowood

You and I both linked to the same product, but yours goes through the company that obviously bought them out. It is nice to see a quality product still available after many years. My cabinetmaking/millwork career was some time ago (1973-1995). Famowood provides the easiest to use with a good color match to the wood. It's not perfect. The nail hole is still visible if you look closely, but to a casual glance, it is practically invisible. It is offered in about a dozen colors to match different woods.
 

Go to my touch up website, mastersmagic.com, and look at the various colors I make in what we call “Finish Putty”. Far more colors than anyone else, made of wax not calcium carbonate, so it’s easy to clean up.