# Best Practice: How to fill mortise in door?



## 4nthony (Aug 9, 2020)

I came across 



 that demonstrates repairing a mortise lock with a Dutchman. The video patches one side of the door: 










I want to patch both sides so I can drill it out and replace it with a modern door lever.

In the video, they are repairing a previous patch so they can reinstall a mortise lock. Because I want to fill the cavity and drill new holes, should I simply cut each side deeper and at different sizes so the smaller insert uses the larger insert for glue backing?










What's the preferred method for completely filling the mortise with new wood? Even though the door will be painted, I'd rather not use an epoxy filler. Thanks!


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## yomanbill (Jul 7, 2020)

What you have sketched should work. However, since you are going to redrill and put in a new lever, I would add some splines top and bottom of each layer for strength. Also, since a lot of the glued surfaces will be end grain, I would recommend that you use epoxy.


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