Bowtie Wood Joint / Butterfly Key / Repairing A Common Error

Working on a small maple live edge slab with a large split down the middle, I decided to use some butterfly keys or bowties to stabilize the top. In the process, the template I was using moved slightly, and causing a slight gap on the sides of the patches. While sanding the keys flush and filling with wood glue to fix the original mistake, the final color of the gap that was filled did not match the top of the maple piece. So I needed to start over and fix another mistake by using a larger butterfly key.

[@becomingacraftsman9267]

Cool man. I want to make something with bow ties eventually. Are you gonna make the full build video too?

[@RossCustomWoodFurniture]

I will probably do a full build video on a future project that incorporates this technique. So stay tuned!

[@mfcosi]

Dear Phil,
I wonder IF I press the sides with pipe clamps to force the crack to 'close' and just then dig the hole for the tie, will make a better looking job. Any thoughts?
Many thanks.

[@RossCustomWoodFurniture]

That's one possible option to get the crack to close as much as possible, however you need to consider why the crack happened in the first place. Wood moves until it is at equilibrium, and if the crack happened due to internal stress, then forcing the crack back to close with pipe clamps could add additional stress to the wood and not necessarily solve the problem in the long term.