Hey guys.. how do I get dents/scratches out?
- Thread starter paksat
- Start date
You can speed this process up by turning the water in a wet paper towel to steam..I heat up a small piece of metal with a clothes iron, hold in in a pair of vice grips. ...touch quickly & only long enough to hear the hisss as the water turns to steam. Once or twice with this usually raises the shaft ding. Then the refinish with the fine grit sandpaper...
That works too...i actually use an iron myself...but you can cause damage to your shaft if your not careful with this method. Take the extra time and let the water just evaporate and pull the wood up. You cant damage your shaft that way. but if your short on time, and feel confident, go ahead and use the iron.
On all types of hard wood the following will work.
1 - Get the cleanest water available. Reverse osmosis, filtered, or distilled water is preferable. Good bottled water next. Tap water last. Reason being the less you add to the wood besides water the less likely you are to have a defect or mark when finished.
2 - Microwave the water to the point of near boiling. I usually prepare 1/4 cup. That will fix several dents in furniture and gives enough to work with easily.
3 - Take a clean Q-tip, or the corner of a paper towel folded several times, and dab the least amount of water needed to fill the dent.
4 - Allow to dry at least overnight. 24 hours is even better.
5 - Forget getting the wood to drive to EXACTLY back to level. Repeat steps 1 through 4 as many times as needed to raise the wood to the tiniest amount higher than it was initially. One a cue, once or twice will almost always be enough.
6 - Once you have the wood raised, take a drinking glass ... not plastic or ceramic ... with the smoothest surface that you have. Place a couple fingers inside the glass and "IRON" the wood back to it's original shape. By rubbing it with the grain and building up a little heat the wood will get extremely close to it's original shape.
7 - Allow the wood to stabilize over night again. Burnish the area with whatever you have that is available. I like the Q -CLEAN films a lot now that I've tried them, but I've used a piece of leather/brown paper bag section/dollar bill with good results.
Last word ... patience is your best friend here. It's about 1-5 minutes each day for 2-3 days in a row. That being said ... unless the dent is more of a gouge, you can get it back to where you'd never know it ever happened.
LWW
1 - Get the cleanest water available. Reverse osmosis, filtered, or distilled water is preferable. Good bottled water next. Tap water last. Reason being the less you add to the wood besides water the less likely you are to have a defect or mark when finished.
2 - Microwave the water to the point of near boiling. I usually prepare 1/4 cup. That will fix several dents in furniture and gives enough to work with easily.
3 - Take a clean Q-tip, or the corner of a paper towel folded several times, and dab the least amount of water needed to fill the dent.
4 - Allow to dry at least overnight. 24 hours is even better.
5 - Forget getting the wood to drive to EXACTLY back to level. Repeat steps 1 through 4 as many times as needed to raise the wood to the tiniest amount higher than it was initially. One a cue, once or twice will almost always be enough.
6 - Once you have the wood raised, take a drinking glass ... not plastic or ceramic ... with the smoothest surface that you have. Place a couple fingers inside the glass and "IRON" the wood back to it's original shape. By rubbing it with the grain and building up a little heat the wood will get extremely close to it's original shape.
7 - Allow the wood to stabilize over night again. Burnish the area with whatever you have that is available. I like the Q -CLEAN films a lot now that I've tried them, but I've used a piece of leather/brown paper bag section/dollar bill with good results.
Last word ... patience is your best friend here. It's about 1-5 minutes each day for 2-3 days in a row. That being said ... unless the dent is more of a gouge, you can get it back to where you'd never know it ever happened.
LWW