*Regarding my post about splintered floors I posted earlier in the year.

I’ve tried many methods to fix the splintered floor. One is working pretty good but the fix doesn’t match color-wise. I took raw, hard shellac buttons and cracked them up and placed them over the deep slivered area. I took the paint-stripper heat gun and ran it back and forth across the area until the shellac melted and quickly ran a metal putty knife over it to smooth it and then ran the heat over it again to level it, then sanded it smooth. I’m talking dry shellac that is not dissolved in alcohol (don’t want a fire.) That heat gun gets extremely hot and can burn the wood. Anyway, it would work great on a knot hole but is too much work if you are doing the whole floor. I tried just a hair blow dryer and it will soften the shellac flake and/or button to a soft enough stage to push it down over a knot hole or void using a metal putty knife. They make shellac sticks you can melt with a flame but they have wax in them which would keep it from taking a finish afterwards. So my method does work but getting the color right is another story. Even the blonde shellac showed up darker when that big a hunk is used. However, antique wood looks good with variances but to do a whole floor…too much work!  (If you try this, be very careful of those heat guns.  Heat can build in between the cracks of the floorboards and if it is very dry could smolder and start a fire.  I spray water in the cracks several minutes before I use the heat gun as a precaution.)

So it isn’t much better than using a normal wood filler and sanding it down. The good thing about the above method is I’m sure the repair will never pop up like wood filler will. Shellac really bonds. I’ve one more idea I’m working on. If that doesn’t work, well, it’s time to bring in the big machine and just sand it all down to good wood. I’d hate to do that if I don’t have to. I’m crossing my fingers as I want the least amount of work possible to save the floor.