Steaming staple holes

[Sven]

i read about this technique and thought I would give it a try on my passage solo build. I was skeptical at first, but after a few passes with the iron over the lightly misted holes, the results were amazing to me. Some of the holes completely disappeared, while most, closed up significantly. There were certainly a few where the wood ended up being severely compressed by the staples and it had very little effect on those.
Has anyone else tried this?

 

[Jim Dodd]

It might work ! But when the water dries, I would think that resin could still weep through the holes ? I was always worried about distorting the glue, with the hot water.

When I seal coat hulls, I would wait an hour after the seal coat, and then come back with 3 oz of mixed resin, and go over the staple holes with a foam brush. This eliminated the resin seeping through the holes, and eliminating those horrible little divots! They are near impossible to fill !

Now, I just hit the holes with a dap of Elmer's MAX wood glue, after the rough hull sand. I rub it in with a finger. It doesn't take long. I had no staple hole weeping on this last hull ! (Pearl).

Jim