Most woodworkers probably don't admit it, but they do make mistakes. I've made a ton. Some can be ignored because they aren't visible or don't matter. Others, however, must be corrected. In some cases, you have to make a new piece and start over. Other times, you can recover with a little creativity. My Dad, who was a carpenter by trade, would make wooden patches and called them "Dutchmen"; I think referring to the frugal Dutch who didn't want to throw things out. He once cut out for hinges in the door jamb and one was in the wrong location. He crafted a fine wooden patch and glued it in place. You have to be looking for it to notice it.
Anyway, here are two examples of some patching I have had to do. The dashboard sits at an angle to the deck battens it attaches to. I glued blocks of wood to the back of the dash to provide some blocking to screw the batten into. Unfortunately, I made the blocking at a right angle and didn't account for the dash angle.
This is the back of the dash with the incorrect blocking already glued and screwed. To fix, I cut a small wedge of oak that was glued to the top of the block to create a block with the correct angle. Here is the dash mounted to a batten and you can see the gap that the "dutchman" fixed.
I also found one of my deck frames too low when I was fairing the deck. I would either have had to remove a lot of material to get everything else around it lower, or I had to build up the low spot. Solution two seemed more logical. I glued an 1/8" strip of oak to the top of the frame and then ground it down into shape after the glue dried.
This shows the faulty frame 4 near the front of the boat with the thin strip of oak glued in place and finished.
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