Here is something I tried that worked really well for hiding nail holes. I had nailed the sheer strip to the forms since it's the "key" strip. I was going to accept the small filled holes and go staple-less for the rest of the boat. The only problem is that I used rubber inner-tube material to make washers so the nails would not imbed all the way and would be easy to pull out. Since I took forever building this thing, the rubber stained the wood around the nail hole. Now I have more than just a little hole, I have a black stain too.

I shaved away some of the wood (also to see if the stain went all the way through... which it did) and saved the shavings. I used a low-angle block plane, and I got the shavings paper-thin. I took the "good" part of the shaving that was closest to the "bad" stained part. This would be the closest match to the wood that I was trying to repair. I then glued that part of the shaving over the stain, using my thumbnail to spread the shaving out and to flatten it as thin as possible. Then I went back and sanded it to feather it out flush. The result was an invisible repair. Because the repair was made from the same piece of wood, and only an inch from the stained part of the wood, the grain was a perfect match, as was the color. Some of the repairs I could not even find in order to sand them. I used the same technique on the bow to cover a gap where the strips met. It also worked where I had a splice that didn't look too good. I used a wood shaving glued over the joint to cover it. I have wet the hull with a wet rag to simulate epoxy, and the repairs were invisible when wetted out. Just make sure that you sand all the extra glue from around the repair.

Just thought someone might be able to use this idea. -Malcolm