Filling Cracks: A Necessary Part of Wood Sculpture
Earlier this week, I was finishing a small apple wood piece. Often, wood develops cracks as it expands and contracts. I think it’s part of the charm of wood. Charming though it may be, the cracks need to be filled.
These are the crack-filling tools I used for this particular piece.
In the above photo, I’ve partially filled a crack by applying Elmer’s Glue to a small piece of the wood — yes, I save pieces of wood that I carve off for this express purpose!
Above, I applied a wood filler, using a metal spatula. I’m partial to Minwax wood putty. Any excess filler is scraped away so that the filler is flush with the surface.
This is what it looks like when finished. As my grandmother used to say, “you’d never notice on a galloping horse”!
