I have been battling what I wanted to do with some of the knots in the tabletop over the past few weeks. Some have cracks and other have voids that look unsightly. Filling them with epoxy was one option, but I wanted something unique and eye catching. I ended up going to to local woodworking store in Loveland to pick up some items that I needed and came across some turquoise powder and decided to give it a go for filling the voids in the table top:

The process was simple and took only a few minutes to complete. First I located the knots that had the cracks that needed to be filled. I then used an 18th inch router bit to bore out some of the material to get better fitting for the turquoise to be inlaid. I then proceeded to pack the newly routed out area with the turquoise powder. After I was satisfied with the packing, I used CA glue (superglue) to set the stone into the cracks. After about 30 minutes of cure time on the glue, I used my random orbital sander with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth out the inlay. I brushed the dust away and inspected. There were a few voids from the larger chunks of turquoise dislodging. I decided to crush some of the turquoise to a finer consistency to fill the remaining voids, apply the CA glue and repeat the sanding. This is what I was left with:

Matt Sparx
Matt Sparx
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Matt Sparx
Matt Sparx
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Matt Sparx
Matt Sparx
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The inlay really makes the tabletop stand out! I do not have any before photos, but I do have plenty of these to do over the 7 foot length and 44 inch wide span of the table. I have also ordered some Obsidian and Sodalite Stone which should be here today to add to the inlays to keep some variety on the tabletop.

More photos and a how-to will be coming soon!

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