Bob Cleek

Try shellac and see if you like it.   It dries in less than 20 minutes and less if you blow on it. It is not toxic at all. It's edible, save for the denatured alcohol, and used in candy manufacturing. It sands easily once dry and a perfectly smooth surface is easily obtained. It's also used as a fine furniture finish. Not to mention that it's far less costly than any of its equivalents.
 
Tung oil is fine for making traditional varnish, but in raw form, it takes a long time to dry. (It doesn't really dry. As an oil, it "polymerizes," if that's the right term for it.) In order to speed drying, "driers" are often added. These are seriously hazardous heavy metals, although less so in the small amounts used for that purpose.
 
I agree that  there are many options and that "technology has moved on, " but often while that technology may offer ease of use or other consumer-enticing qualities, its toxicity, compatibility with other finishes, and longevity may be in question. Just sayin'. Everybody's mileage seems to differ these days, it seems. Pick your poison.  

Probably because a lot of plastic kit builders don't realize that and keep searching for "chain" in the scale of their models. Maybe they found that "doing the math" to convert "links per inch" to various scales was above a lot of their customer's pay grades.  

Beyond what I said above, I've got no more information on David Goodchild. These days, I have to remind myself more and more frequently that people I've known for years are getting older, too. A lot of them were older than I in the first place. "Whatever happened to Charlie?... Oh, he died a couple of years ago." is sadly a common experience for me these days. The last time he "dropped off the radar" a few years ago, some of us who had done business with him over the years were hoping somebody would take over his business. I think it's pretty much a "one man show," but his catalog was amazing and from all indications was always thriving. 
 
Also, I believe he did not maintain any inventory of printed books, but rather produced each reprint on demand as it was ordered. I'm not sure how what technology he used, but his books were not photocopies of the original, but rather separately typeset bound volumes. The process was that an order would come in and he'd have the copy printed and bound and then sent out. I'm not positive, but I don't think he was doing the printing in house. It's also entirely possible that the local pandemic restrictions shut down his printing operation. He lives, or used to live, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, as I recall. I don't know what the pandemic situation is there right now. Like a lot of businesses, he may simply be shut down due to the pandemic. Your order would have been right around the time the "lock downs" started and it may have been stuck in the pipeline.
 
If it's any consolation, The David Goodchild I know would never take somebody's money and skip out. There's got to be an explanation there somewhere.

Solving this problem can be done by taking the following logical steps.
 
1.  Ship and boat rigs fall into a number of defined classes. In your case, one mast, gaff rigged mainsail, jib, and foresail.  This is what we would call a “cutter.”
 
2. Regardless of the boat’s nationality, the physics of controlling the sails to make it perform are the same.  There are two excellent books that describe how the sails of a cutter work.  Tom Cunliff’s Hand, Reef, and Steer, and John Leather’s Gaff Rig.  If the two, I personally prefer Cunliff’s book.  Cunliff is a working sailor who has made long distance passages in a number of cutter rigged boats.  After reading either of these you will understand not just what to do but why you are doing it.
 
3.  It is true that different nationalities and regions did things differently.  I have a book- Les bateaux des cotes de la Bretagne Nord by Jean Le Bot.  This book is packed with information about the indigenous sailing craft of Breton.  Although it is written in French, it is wonderfully illustrated, including an envelope of large scale plans.
 
By ignoring the kit supplied drawings and relying on well documented sources you will upgrade your model considerably.
 
Roger

Way back when an IBM XT was cutting edge, there was an excellent program = Word Perfect  that could search a document for all instances of a selected word.  This sort of program has become more sophisticated and capable and OCR has also.  In the posts where old school draftsmen are discussing a lost job type,  I am musing that there may have been specialists, no longer needed,  who assembled the index for technical books and articles.  Were I an author, I am pretty sure it would be a deal breaker if I was required to formulate an index for my own work pre computer.

Okay, I'm sure this won't violate any of Chuck's trade secrets: The big question is "Does anybody know where to get the best price on tiny point cutting roundover bits? 
 
Amana makes them in radii of 1/8", 3/32", 1/16", and 1/32", which will give you blocks with rounded ends of twice that, or 1/4", 3/16", 1/8", and 1/16", although I doubt anybody would have the nerve to try to make 1/16" blocks! (At 1:48, a 1/4" block would have a sheave diameter of a foot.)
 
https://www.amanatool.com/products/router-bits/grooving-router-bits/point-cutting-roundover-router-bits.html
 

The problem is that these suckers average around fifty bucks a piece, so to get a range of the larger three sizes (forget about 1/16",) is going to cost about $150. It would take a lot of block-making to justify that cost. Does anybody know of a "hack" for getting the same result without paying fifty bucks for a two inch by one quarter bit? Can small bits be made in the shop? Could the shape be made by a scraper? Any thoughts are welcome!
 
 
 

Absolutely.   As I said in post #8, I was only attempting to take advantage of a tutorial if it was still around.   I appreciate it though, very much. When I first read that there was a tutorial I was a bit surprised!  I have no real interest in making these in any kind of bulk, more that Syren was out of stock in what I needed and thought I might try a go at it.  I only need a handful. 
 
Interesting!   This is more or less how I had imagined it myself, but without a mill I was anticipating separating out the blocks and then having to cut grooves one by one...   
 
Aside from the grain direction being all wrong in that diagram I assumed this was how it was done.   At first I was certain the process was over engineered but I guess if you need to turn out thousands of these there really is not other way around it but using complicated jigs, mills and bits.   Seems a whole different world then hardworking a few dozen over the course of a day.  
 
Nope, not for me.   If I had that kind of requirement I definitely would wait as long as needed to buy them from Syren!   I admire your fortitude. 
 
I have one of the flapper block tumblers that MS sells, and modified it according to Chucks instructions for use with his deadeyes and it works really well. I had actually tried to use it with the MS kit provided blocks and they just shredded or broke apart.   It is apparently designed to take those blocky blocks down a notch but it just made mulch with mine...

I have used shellac for many years to dampproof the model buildings I make from Card, from highly specific card like CS 10 line board to cornflake packets.  They are still, after 35 years in some cases, perfect, despite moving with me to all sorts of places including living on 2 boats.
 
Shellac comes in many forms. The most common is French Polish which is used on fine furniture. Also known as button polish, but essentially the same shellac, which is a natural plant based substance.  In Britain we would always thin it with what we call Methylated Spirits, sometimes a purple colour (which doesn't show), sometimes clear, but always with the most wonderful "Grandad's shed" smell.  My Grandad was a top cabinet maker and made his own stains and polishes with meths. as the base.  I still have a bottle of one of his stained polishes, which is so old now it smells of the best red wine and looks like vintage port!
 
When I tried to find denatured alcohol here I drew a blank and it took an Anglophile American chum to offer the fact that it's what we Limeys call Meths.  It's what we burn in the boilers of Mamod and S.E.L. toy steam engines too (another of my passions).  It has a wonderful sweet smell. It is purple allegedly to stop winos drinking it!
 
Finally, although I use cellulose sanding sealer (as on my Vanity cutter build's deck), I do have some shellac based sanding sealer and that has a French chalk filler in it to help fill grain.  It doesn't dry white.
I would never use any water based product on wood. It would always raise grain and fuzziness.  And we need nice smells in the workshop.
 
I hope this helps.
 
Martin

I covered the same ground some time back in an attempt to "reverse engineer" "Chucky blocks" and had some questions. I ended up PMing Chuck to ask where his tutorial was. He explained that it had been lost in the "Great Crash" along with a lot of other forum data. He apologized graciously when declining to divulge his "trade secrets" and I assured him I completely understood his position. Chucky blocks are, of course, his "rice bowl." I did eventually devise a method producing similar results to his, but I can't imagine my process could ever serve for large scale production manufacturing of the little buggers. It's a labor of love and no way to make a living the way I devised to do it.
 
While I don't know Chuck's secret, I can share that there are a couple of very clever block mass-production methods set out in great detail in Antonio Mendez's William Frederick's (1874) Scale Journey: A Scratchbuilder's Evolutionary Development, a book well worth buying for the very reasonable bargain prices it's selling for these days.  https://www.amazon.com/William-Fredericks-Scale-Journey-Scratchbuilders/dp/0975577204  Like Chuck's method, or what I was able to see of it in the available posts, Mendez's approach requires construction of boxes and jigs for each size and type of block. Mendez's method, at least for a bit larger blocks (1/2" scale,) provides a method for shaping near-true elliptically-shaped blocks as well as blocks with curved cheek faces if you are interested in those. All of Mendez's blocks contain working sheaves, too, although his process is easily adapted to just drilling holes for faux sheaves. (A lot of Mendez's book is about techniques for building working sailing models.)
 
Mendez uses a blank-holding box magazine on a disk sander to shape the radii on his blocks. Chuck uses a round-over bit in a mill. (Or a drill press with an X-Y table or the shop made equivalent.) That's the basic difference in their two methods. No matter how you cut it, making blocks is a tedious process. Chuck's real secret is how he manages to do it on a production basis and make enough to sell that it's worth his time to make them. You won't ever appreciate Chuck's skill until you try it yourself!
 
 

I'm actually surprised he ever had it spelled out somewhere to begin with, honestly. I was thinking of asking him about the tutorial myself as well, but he seems so busy I just didn't want to constantly be asking him questions so I appreciate your response.   As well, I can completely understand his reticence in divulging his secrets!  I actually just contacted him recently about the availability of blocks through his store.  
 
My time at the bench is so rare that I would always opt to buy something like blocks rather then spend a day making them; that just isn't where I get my pleasure from.   Unfortunately, if you follow his company thread it seems the blocks, in particular, go rather quickly.   I think that's great for him, but a bummer for us who aren't lucky enough to snap some up when we need them (or clever enough to stock up when we don't need them - something he himself doesn't like us to do).  When I wrote him yesterday he said he was two weeks out from restocking his supply in the size I needed which translates to probably more like five weeks before I can get my hands on them.  Which again is not a big deal, Im happy to wait and is not a complaint about his business.   Given the wait I just thought "what the hell" maybe I'll give making them a try, and if doesn't work out Ill just buy them when stocks are replenished.   
 
Ultimately, I don't need many for my current build so even if I choose to make them -  literally by hand - it won't be time wasted.  If anything it'll be a lesson learned and a new appreciation for the product he provides!   BTW, I do have a copy of Fredericks book around so Ill take a look!  

I covered the same ground some time back in an attempt to "reverse engineer" "Chucky blocks" and had some questions. I ended up PMing Chuck to ask where his tutorial was. He explained that it had been lost in the "Great Crash" along with a lot of other forum data. He apologized graciously when declining to divulge his "trade secrets" and I assured him I completely understood his position. Chucky blocks are, of course, his "rice bowl." I did eventually devise a method producing similar results to his, but I can't imagine my process could ever serve for large scale production manufacturing of the little buggers. It's a labor of love and no way to make a living the way I devised to do it.
 
While I don't know Chuck's secret, I can share that there are a couple of very clever block mass-production methods set out in great detail in Antonio Mendez's William Frederick's (1874) Scale Journey: A Scratchbuilder's Evolutionary Development, a book well worth buying for the very reasonable bargain prices it's selling for these days.  https://www.amazon.com/William-Fredericks-Scale-Journey-Scratchbuilders/dp/0975577204  Like Chuck's method, or what I was able to see of it in the available posts, Mendez's approach requires construction of boxes and jigs for each size and type of block. Mendez's method, at least for a bit larger blocks (1/2" scale,) provides a method for shaping near-true elliptically-shaped blocks as well as blocks with curved cheek faces if you are interested in those. All of Mendez's blocks contain working sheaves, too, although his process is easily adapted to just drilling holes for faux sheaves. (A lot of Mendez's book is about techniques for building working sailing models.)
 
Mendez uses a blank-holding box magazine on a disk sander to shape the radii on his blocks. Chuck uses a round-over bit in a mill. (Or a drill press with an X-Y table or the shop made equivalent.) That's the basic difference in their two methods. No matter how you cut it, making blocks is a tedious process. Chuck's real secret is how he manages to do it on a production basis and make enough to sell that it's worth his time to make them. You won't ever appreciate Chuck's skill until you try it yourself!
 
 

I covered the same ground some time back in an attempt to "reverse engineer" "Chucky blocks" and had some questions. I ended up PMing Chuck to ask where his tutorial was. He explained that it had been lost in the "Great Crash" along with a lot of other forum data. He apologized graciously when declining to divulge his "trade secrets" and I assured him I completely understood his position. Chucky blocks are, of course, his "rice bowl." I did eventually devise a method producing similar results to his, but I can't imagine my process could ever serve for large scale production manufacturing of the little buggers. It's a labor of love and no way to make a living the way I devised to do it.
 
While I don't know Chuck's secret, I can share that there are a couple of very clever block mass-production methods set out in great detail in Antonio Mendez's William Frederick's (1874) Scale Journey: A Scratchbuilder's Evolutionary Development, a book well worth buying for the very reasonable bargain prices it's selling for these days.  https://www.amazon.com/William-Fredericks-Scale-Journey-Scratchbuilders/dp/0975577204  Like Chuck's method, or what I was able to see of it in the available posts, Mendez's approach requires construction of boxes and jigs for each size and type of block. Mendez's method, at least for a bit larger blocks (1/2" scale,) provides a method for shaping near-true elliptically-shaped blocks as well as blocks with curved cheek faces if you are interested in those. All of Mendez's blocks contain working sheaves, too, although his process is easily adapted to just drilling holes for faux sheaves. (A lot of Mendez's book is about techniques for building working sailing models.)
 
Mendez uses a blank-holding box magazine on a disk sander to shape the radii on his blocks. Chuck uses a round-over bit in a mill. (Or a drill press with an X-Y table or the shop made equivalent.) That's the basic difference in their two methods. No matter how you cut it, making blocks is a tedious process. Chuck's real secret is how he manages to do it on a production basis and make enough to sell that it's worth his time to make them. You won't ever appreciate Chuck's skill until you try it yourself!
 
 

I covered the same ground some time back in an attempt to "reverse engineer" "Chucky blocks" and had some questions. I ended up PMing Chuck to ask where his tutorial was. He explained that it had been lost in the "Great Crash" along with a lot of other forum data. He apologized graciously when declining to divulge his "trade secrets" and I assured him I completely understood his position. Chucky blocks are, of course, his "rice bowl." I did eventually devise a method producing similar results to his, but I can't imagine my process could ever serve for large scale production manufacturing of the little buggers. It's a labor of love and no way to make a living the way I devised to do it.
 
While I don't know Chuck's secret, I can share that there are a couple of very clever block mass-production methods set out in great detail in Antonio Mendez's William Frederick's (1874) Scale Journey: A Scratchbuilder's Evolutionary Development, a book well worth buying for the very reasonable bargain prices it's selling for these days.  https://www.amazon.com/William-Fredericks-Scale-Journey-Scratchbuilders/dp/0975577204  Like Chuck's method, or what I was able to see of it in the available posts, Mendez's approach requires construction of boxes and jigs for each size and type of block. Mendez's method, at least for a bit larger blocks (1/2" scale,) provides a method for shaping near-true elliptically-shaped blocks as well as blocks with curved cheek faces if you are interested in those. All of Mendez's blocks contain working sheaves, too, although his process is easily adapted to just drilling holes for faux sheaves. (A lot of Mendez's book is about techniques for building working sailing models.)
 
Mendez uses a blank-holding box magazine on a disk sander to shape the radii on his blocks. Chuck uses a round-over bit in a mill. (Or a drill press with an X-Y table or the shop made equivalent.) That's the basic difference in their two methods. No matter how you cut it, making blocks is a tedious process. Chuck's real secret is how he manages to do it on a production basis and make enough to sell that it's worth his time to make them. You won't ever appreciate Chuck's skill until you try it yourself!
 
 

Thanks again for taking time to help me. That goes for everyone in this thread! My Shellac arrives Friday and I can't wait to get started again. Ill be back with more questions soon I am sure. 

Herreshoff was and still is famous for beautifully designed boat hardware, but using Herreshoff hardware on a sharpie seems like guilding the Lilly.  I would suggest small metal blocks ship chandler grade.  The originals probably would have been galvanized.
 
Roger

Yes. Finishing wood has become one of those things like mousetraps, everybody's trying to market a better one. At best, they haven't come up with much of anything better than the old tried and true methods. (Although some of the polyurethane "bar varnishes" are remarkably durable.) Norm Abram was always touting Minwax's "wipe on poly" finishes on his New Yankee Workshop, along with all the newest Delta stationary power tools. The show's sponsors were, you guessed it, Delta and Minwax. Nothing wrong with Minwax wipe on poly if you don't mind paying the same price for half as much expensive material cut with cheap paint thinner. That kind of marketing would get a dope dealer whacked in a hot minute. Woodworkers are more easily duped than junkies are, I guess.
 
By the way, I seal all my wood and card material on models with shellac. It's a very good moisture barrier which minimizes wood movement when the ambient humidity changes.  Softwoods like basswood can be sanded after sealing with shellac and will not leave a "fuzzed" surface. Shellac stiffens paper and card stock and prevents adhesive "bleed-through." It's what confectioners use to make jelly beans and M&M's shiny, too. Shellac has lots of uses.

IIRC, Chapelle's Boatbuilding has an appendix of sorts with reproductions from the Wilcox-Crittenden or Merriman catalog showing the sort of blocks used on yachts for the first half of the Twentieth Century. They were internally bronze-stropped with ash, oak, teak, or lignam vitae cheeks and bronze sheaves. Workboat blocks were similar, but of rougher finish. They had galvanized steel strops, sometimes external, and galvanized sheaves and ash or oak cheeks which weren't as rounded over on their edges. For a variety of reasons, often economic, rope stropped blocks of various shapes continued in use as well, as they have to the present day. Cast bronze blocks in quite small sizes as well as cast bronze cheek blocks were also used. They weren't used in larger sizes due to safety and weight-aloft considerations.

Yes. Finishing wood has become one of those things like mousetraps, everybody's trying to market a better one. At best, they haven't come up with much of anything better than the old tried and true methods. (Although some of the polyurethane "bar varnishes" are remarkably durable.) Norm Abram was always touting Minwax's "wipe on poly" finishes on his New Yankee Workshop, along with all the newest Delta stationary power tools. The show's sponsors were, you guessed it, Delta and Minwax. Nothing wrong with Minwax wipe on poly if you don't mind paying the same price for half as much expensive material cut with cheap paint thinner. That kind of marketing would get a dope dealer whacked in a hot minute. Woodworkers are more easily duped than junkies are, I guess.
 
By the way, I seal all my wood and card material on models with shellac. It's a very good moisture barrier which minimizes wood movement when the ambient humidity changes.  Softwoods like basswood can be sanded after sealing with shellac and will not leave a "fuzzed" surface. Shellac stiffens paper and card stock and prevents adhesive "bleed-through." It's what confectioners use to make jelly beans and M&M's shiny, too. Shellac has lots of uses.

To summarize, there are different approaches. The easiest and most fool-proof is shellac. Varnishes and sealers are messy and can leave brush strokes if you don't know what you're doing. Most cost a lot more than shellac and denatured alcohol and have much shorter shelf-lives.
 
Do this and you shouldn't have any problems:
 
Get the Zinsser clear shellac and a quart or gallon of denatured alcohol at the paint or hardware store. (Save the Amazon shipping.) Stir the shellac in the can before use. Use a brush to apply it. Apply full strength out of the can to some scrap wood of the same species as what you intent to seal on the model. Just apply generously, or even just dip it in the can and shake/wipe off the excess. It is the consistency of water and will soak right into the wood. Let it dry (a few minutes) and see if it looks okay. If you think it's too thick, add some denatured alcohol to some shellac and repeat the testing process. Make sure the surface is totally clean before applying any finish. Use a "tack rag" from the paint or hardware store to pick up the dust. Keep the tack rag in a zip-lock plastic bag and it will last a long time. You can also use a bit of masking tape to pick up dust with the sticky side. When you have it like you want, apply to your model with the brush.
 
If you have properly prepared the wood surface prior to applying the shellac, you shouldn't need to do anything more for the finish. If it is too glossy (applied too thickly,) the excess shellac can easily be removed at any time with denatured alcohol. If the surface was dusty, you can rub the sealed surface with rottenstone and pummice, bronze wool, or a scotchbrite pad. (Bronze wool avoids the rust problems of steel wool, for a price.)
 
Clean your brush with denatured alcohol. Take care in cleaning the edge of the can and lid and replace the lid well. If your shellac ever thickens, you can easily thin it by adding more denatured alcohol. There's no risk to your health using these materials. 
 
You should have no concern about adhesives sticking to a surface sealed with shellac. In any event, all parts of a wood and metal model should to the greatest extent possible be secured not only by an adhesive, but also by some sort of mechanical fastening. This is usually a small peg set with glue into a drilled hole. 
 
Shellac is also very good for sealing rigging knots and stiffening rigging lines and coils of rope so it hangs naturally on the model. An application of denatured alcohol will easily soften the dried shellac to permit untying if need be. (Unlike other adhesives!) 

Shellac can also be used as a filler if one doesn't mind rubbing the built-up gloss down with rottenstone and pummice, fine metal wool, or a Scotchbrite pad. Note that "orange" shellac will darken as additional coats are applied. "Clear" or "bleached" shellac remains clear regardless of the number of coats.
 
I'd be hesitant to put plaster of Paris into shellac to produce a filler unless one were going to paint over it. The plaster is white. 
 
Like Jaager, I'm also very partial to shellac for all its versatile uses in modeling. 

Thanks for the comment and the photo. I visited the Morgan at Mystic many years ago but I don’t know where any of my photos are. 😞 Where is Barre MA?  I spent the first 23 years of my life in Saugus, MA, a Boston suburb. 
I thought about trying to add rivet/nail detail but decided anything I did would be grossly out of scale.

To summarize, there are different approaches. The easiest and most fool-proof is shellac. Varnishes and sealers are messy and can leave brush strokes if you don't know what you're doing. Most cost a lot more than shellac and denatured alcohol and have much shorter shelf-lives.
 
Do this and you shouldn't have any problems:
 
Get the Zinsser clear shellac and a quart or gallon of denatured alcohol at the paint or hardware store. (Save the Amazon shipping.) Stir the shellac in the can before use. Use a brush to apply it. Apply full strength out of the can to some scrap wood of the same species as what you intent to seal on the model. Just apply generously, or even just dip it in the can and shake/wipe off the excess. It is the consistency of water and will soak right into the wood. Let it dry (a few minutes) and see if it looks okay. If you think it's too thick, add some denatured alcohol to some shellac and repeat the testing process. Make sure the surface is totally clean before applying any finish. Use a "tack rag" from the paint or hardware store to pick up the dust. Keep the tack rag in a zip-lock plastic bag and it will last a long time. You can also use a bit of masking tape to pick up dust with the sticky side. When you have it like you want, apply to your model with the brush.
 
If you have properly prepared the wood surface prior to applying the shellac, you shouldn't need to do anything more for the finish. If it is too glossy (applied too thickly,) the excess shellac can easily be removed at any time with denatured alcohol. If the surface was dusty, you can rub the sealed surface with rottenstone and pummice, bronze wool, or a scotchbrite pad. (Bronze wool avoids the rust problems of steel wool, for a price.)
 
Clean your brush with denatured alcohol. Take care in cleaning the edge of the can and lid and replace the lid well. If your shellac ever thickens, you can easily thin it by adding more denatured alcohol. There's no risk to your health using these materials. 
 
You should have no concern about adhesives sticking to a surface sealed with shellac. In any event, all parts of a wood and metal model should to the greatest extent possible be secured not only by an adhesive, but also by some sort of mechanical fastening. This is usually a small peg set with glue into a drilled hole. 
 
Shellac is also very good for sealing rigging knots and stiffening rigging lines and coils of rope so it hangs naturally on the model. An application of denatured alcohol will easily soften the dried shellac to permit untying if need be. (Unlike other adhesives!) 

That is exactly what I recommend that you use.  For the first coat, cut some it 50:50 with shellac thinner.  Long ago and far away, that used to be methanol - wood alcohol - but if your drink it, your liver metabolizes it to formaldehyde - and you die.  It all seems to be ethanol now - with a trace of something noxious and emetic - and is called denatured alcohol.
Drug store alcohol has too much water and water turns shellac white.  That is why shellac is not used on tabletops - not everyone uses a coaster.
My local hardware has this brand and pints or quarts of denatured alcohol.  I checked Home Depot and Slowes - they only list quarts of Zinsser.  I go the hardware store route.
An old tee shirt square is as good as anything else for application.  The first coat will just soak it and not leave all that much on the surface. The next full strength coat will cover the surface, but it is not thick enough material to need skilled brush application. a soft rag is enough.  Alcohol repairs mistakes and a Scotch-Brite  pad will smooth the surface, if needed. 
You can use a single edge razor blade to to smooth the surface, with an alcohol cleaning, before you apply any shellac.  But if you have open pores, the dust from using sand paper may fill them some.  Scrapping does not leave any residue behind.

Thank you for taking the time to answer me. You gave me alot of information that is very foreign to me and I feel more uncertain then when I started.
I THINK you suggested that I use Shellac. So something like this from Amazon?
https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-316-Bulls-Shellac-2-Pint/dp/B000LNQBBI/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=shellac&qid=1589799474&refinements=p_85%3A2470955011&rnid=2470954011&rps=1&s=hi&sr=1-3

I have no direct experience with plaster of paris as a filler.  I remember it from a book on fine furniture finishing.  I thought it strange too.  The best I could speculate about it is that the particles are translucent when exposed to shellac.  Otherwise, Black Walnut would look like it had white measles.  .... I checked my library and I can't find it.  It may have been pumice.  Anyway, it was so startling that it stuck with me.  "Never mind."   It is better to never use a species of wood where a coat of half cut shellac is not an effective sealer.