Today in #LockdownDIY, we have mainly been dealing with the house doors. When we moved in here (about 6 years ago), they were all caked in a thick layer of what seemed to be a latex-based masonry paint on top of the usual accumulation of 100 years of gloss on varnish.

They were sent off to be dipped and stripped not that long after (which had the guys cursing and swearing as that finish was almost impervious to the chemical strippers) re-hung and then pretty much forgotten about ever since.

The stripping worked good, but the scraping required to coax the finish off took its toll, as did all the nail and screw holes from over the years, particularly where the panelling and architrave had been boarded over to make them more 50s/60s fashionable

Job number 1 - bang in any remaining pins with a nail punch. Trying to pull "lost head" nails out causes much more mess than just pushing them in and filling over

Job number 2, where big holes have been left in the door from old handles, chisel these out to known dimensions so they can be plugged up with an appropriate bit of wood that can be sanded flush. You'll be wanting a razor-sharp chisel for this unless you want another mess.

Job number 3. I'm not sure how, but many years ago, someone made a complete arse-up of slimming this door down to fit. I'm not sure what sort of badly-wielded, blunt tool managed to cause this butchery, but it's going to need planed flat.

You'll be wanting a block plane for this. The blade is set shallow so it can cut across the grain of the mortice and tenon joints in a panelled door. It's also got a short body so can follow minor curves, and is easy to wield even when door still attached

That's not a fancy plane, it's pretty bog standard, but take the time to re-finish the blade as even factory fresh they just aren't sharp enough. You can do it with just sandpaper, a whetstone and a lot of patience (and an infinite number of Youtube plane-honing videos)

Anyways, if you can get it sharp enough that it will shave your arm hairs off with no effort, then it will sort your door out, even chopping easily through the end-grain of those tenons.

Job number 4. Filling! But not with your standard wood fillers, which are acrylic based and in all my attempts with them *never* match the colour or texture of the wood, and *never* accept any stain or oiling, despite what the tin says.

I'm using this stuff. It seems to be a mix of wood pulp, pigment and solvent. It stinks like nail polish remover and can be thinned and cleaned with cellulose thinners, so I'm assuming it's acetone or propanone based.

Anyway, I'm pretty impressed. It's easy enough to use if you can bare the smell, there's no shrink or slump as it sets, and dries in 10 minutes. At that point it sands down pretty nice

That slight dark halo around the nail hole is corrosion from the metal of the nail I think (the pins in this door were removed, rather than buried inside the wood)

The proof of the pudding however will be in the oiling. And you'll have to wait for that because I've 2 more doors to fill tomorrow and all 4 to properly sand down, architrave and all (by hand)