What filler will hide thin gaps

[mothman505]

There has to be a better filler than white glue and sawdust to fill small gaps in lamanations of mahogany strips.  What do you use that's better so I can varnish area?

 

[See Level]

Epoxy resin and sawdust

Try the sponsor website 

West System

 

[The Mad Hatter]

If you are going to vanish and don"t want to use sawdust to make up the filler and you don"t want white bits from using Q cells  you may be able to us microballoons to give a darker brown or the west microlite to give a very pale brown or fawn colour.  Having said all that nothing is ideal.

 

[casc27]

As See Level said, the sawdust thing is the way to go, especially if you can collect some from the same supply of wood used to make the hull for color match.

 

[CaptainAhab]

99% of the time the saw dust method yields poor results. If you put finish in the end grain of any wood it will always be darker than the face or side grain. When you mix saw dust into resin or glue you are seeing a very high percentage of end grain. That is why it’s darker. 
 

Another option is to fill it full of straight epoxy.  Mix some up in a small cup. Let it gel then force it into your gaps. 

 

[cyclone]

Another option is to fill it full of straight epoxy.  Mix some up in a small cup. Let it gel then force it into your gaps. 

West Six10 cures to a light amber color, has a nice thickness to work into cracks, and can be mixed in small amounts directly from the tube. A transparent filler can be less noticeable under the gloss of the varnish.

 

[gelbrossi]

You can use white microballoons and sawdust, mix it with epoxy and try to find the color that you like to have. The color will not change while the epoxy is curing. Oh, and try to find a UV stabilized clear epoxy.

 

[andykane]

You can use white microballoons and sawdust, mix it with epoxy and try to find the color that you like to have. The color will not change while the epoxy is curing. Oh, and try to find a UV stabilized clear epoxy.

This! You can get an excellent color match. West System has a good article about it (scroll down to "color-matched fillets"): https://www.epoxyworks.com/index.php/bonding-with-fillets/

 

[brucephenry]

Do you intend to stain the mahogany or leave it natural?

I ask because if you’re going to stain you can use a gel stain and hide most of the color mismatch. To the point that just West System’s fairing filler in 406 works just fine once it gets stained and varnished. 

 

[See Level]

+1

Use sanding dust, not sawdust, add to the epoxy, then mix in some West 407 or 410 (both brown) and a white one  to get the shade you need. It's a bit trial and error since as mentioned using sanding dust alone generally gives a too dark filler.

Your right sanding dust not sawdust.