sealing cracks in old bridge dressed timber!

hey there

i just purchased some fantastic looking rustic timber today and plan to make a coffee table.

the timber is very visually attractive and has light cracks scarring its entire surface. what i will be wanting to do, ideally, is to seal/fill these cracks to enable me to sand down to a completely smooth finish and then shellac/wax etc...

so, the question i have is, what can i use to the fill the cracks/incisions without ruining the appeal? ive read stuff about putty, pva and saw dust but thought i should ask none the less.

thanks in advance, timbertom.

I know of two ways to disguise unsightly cracks like these:

Firstly, use a powdered resin type glue mixed with sawdust. The glue sets rock hard in under 30 minutes and takes all finishes. CA glue can also be used but you don't get a lot of time to work with! When I use it I fill the crack with sawdust then dribble in the CA.

Secondly, use a propriatery coloured wood filler you can get from any hardware store, but go darker. The colour of the filler tends to be lighter than the wood it's supposed to be blending in with and I find that a dark crack looks better than a lighter one!

If the timber has a cranky grain as well (Karri springs to mind here) the cracks can also "lift" off the surface after a year or two so I'd be looking at a thickish finish, possibly sanding sealer followed by shellac. Cellulose based sanding sealer is great because it penetrates deeply and sets quite thick in minutes!