EricJ

I'm replacing 5 hollow core interior doors with solid wood doors and wanted to stain the door jambs. There was a lot of paint on them but I was able to get everything down to bare wood and sanded nicely. I'm ready to stain but several of the recessed pockets for the hinges (mortise?) are kind of butchered. One is over 5" long and with many screw holes, I wanted to use 3-1/2" hinges. I saw this video and I was thinking of trying something similar.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,1632465,00.html

Am I over complicating things? Should I just try some stainable minwax wood fill and slightly fill in the areas above and below the hinge?

Thanks for any advise.

nealtw

Welcome to the site: That is the right way to go if you have a router and the skill and some matching wood. You can jig up without the fancy attachments for the router.

CallMeVilla

I have actually done this exact repair only on the strike side of the door jamb. It requires careful attention to detail and precise measuring. It is do-able the way Tommy did it and the plunge router is the tool ... however, you can d it with a standard router if you are careful.