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Knots in boards

Started by Bill Gill, July 30, 2017, 10:05:17 AM

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Bill Gill

During a recent beach combing for tiny driftwood pieces, this piece gave me an idea, at least for those working in larger scales:
The tiny "knots" can be carefully removed from the rest of the wood as seen in the small "knot" separate from the piece. I think these could then be glued into holes drilled into scale boards to provide realistic knots in the wood. Even the larger knot in the second photo looks like it could be carefully separated and used.

finescalerr

Or stick a toothpick through a hole and slice off the excess. I can't remember whether Chuck uses that trick or a variation on his models. -- Russ

Bill Gill

Yes, I've seen the toothpick technique, where the shape of the knot can be altered by drilling holes at different angles through the board for the toothpick, but i thought this might be a way to have knots that already have a tight circular grain pattern and knots that will be naturally darker than the board they are glued into too. 

finescalerr

I have no doubt your technique produces beautiful knots. I mentioned toothpicks because some people may be unable to find wood similar to yours. -- Russ

5thwheel

Nice ideas but remember that knots in boards are like rocks in a stream the (grain) water flows around them.   
Bill Hudson
Fall down nine times,
get up ten.

Bill Gill

Bill, you're right, the grain in the rest of the board would still need to flow around the knots. Chuck Doan added toothpick knots and then grained around them with some of his barn boards, and Ray Dunakin grained very convincing heavily weathered styrene boards with styrene knots for his miner's cabin. That part of the modeling would be the same, but maybe using tiny real knots in a few key locations might make otherwise "ordinary" old boards look a bit more interesting?