I have a maple bench that recently decide to crack. I'm not sure what's the cause. I'm guessing wood expansion due to humidity changes. Anyway, I've decided to look around for solutions on fixing the crack. The crack itself is pretty small, a finger nail barely fits in the opening. Here's some pictures:
Top of the bench
Close-up of the top
Under the bench
Ideally, I would like to close the gap. In the end, I'm not sure which one is the best approach. I've considered the following:
- Bowties; although it doesn't seems to close the gap.
- Dutchman; a patch wouldn't be that bad, but requires a lot of precision!
- Re-gluing; by carving the crack in a V shape from under the bench, adding glue and then clamping.
- Wood filer; would probably require sanding the whole top, staining and varnishing again. I would like to avoid that.
- Staining the crack with a tiny brush; makes the crack less visible but wouldn't close the gap.
Anyone have experiences on fixing these cracks?
UPDATE: I went ahead and stained the crack as per @HenryJackson's answer. It is a lot less visible. I will leave it as-is for now. (It's not making me crazy... yet!)