Patching holes on satin or gloss wood finishes

[Neal Pert]

Is it possible to patch/fill holes on drums with wood finishes? Can it be done convincingly?

I see a lot of drums around that'd be lovely without the extra holes. I've done the dowel-and-putty trick on drums I'm re-wrapping and it's been totally fine. But what kind of sorcery is required to do a convincing patch on a wood drum? Is it even possible? Do you have examples?

 

[Kevin_S]

It depends on what you consider convincing. I have patched holes in drums with various methods, but mainly where there is a wrap involved. Here is an example of a reasonably acceptable patch. This is an oak stair tread with a cross grain plug. To be able to patch holes in wood drums you need a plug cutter for the drill press and very good "donor"

 

[drumjinxjr]

The plug cutter method suggested by Kevin is a very good way to go. Adding to that, If i'm repairing a wood piece that has distinctive grain, I will sometimes manually cut extra grain into the plug area, pulling it out past the plug circle, then stain the whole piece. The stain will stick more in the open grain areas, including the area that I've cut into. This helps mask the fact that there's a circle of different wood in the visible field.