Scratches and Hollows are the two important problems for wooden furniture finishing process. During finishing and painting or lacquering, you must remove scratches and fill hollows/cavities. Wax type furniture-patching sticks may be used to eliminate fairly deep scratches. And, Wood Putty may be used to fill the hollows. Generally, wooden furniture often shows a lot of scratches, hollows and dents. Before final finishing you must eliminate them.
How to Eliminate Scratches
To eliminate small scratches swiftly, smash the core part of a walnut or Brazil nut and rub them along the scratch. The oil in the nut meat would darken the scratch.
Where a lot of deep scratches are present, apply hard paste of wax on the surface with steel wool (No. 0000) very lightly along the grain of the wood. Then, buff the surface with a soft cloth.
For deep scratches, wax type furniture-patching sticks are usually effective. These sticks may be of several wood colors. Choose a wax stick to match the color. To use the wax stick, rub it firmly along the scratch by giving sufficient pressure to fill up the scratch with wax. Take out excess wax from the surface of furniture with the help of edge of a Debit card or other lean PVC card. Keep the wax for drying; then, buff with a soft cloth.
Highly scratched surfaces should generally be refinished. You may be needed to stain the raw area to match by polishing. You may use solvent or oil-based stain with an artists’ brush for matching color. Keep it 15 minutes for drying and next, wipe it off. If it is necessary, repeat this process until the scratch matches properly.
Finally, apply hard paste of wax and buff the waxed surface properly to a get shine.
How to Fill Hollows and Dents
Small, shallow hollows in pine, poplar and other soft woods are generally easy to remove; but large and deep hollows in hard wood are difficult to repair (but not impossible). For deep hollows, you can use wood dust mixed with adhesive and for small hollows, you can use wood putty.
After using saw dust mixed with adhesive or wood putty, give them proper time for drying. After that, sand properly with 80-grit sand paper. Next, buff on this surface with steel wool (No. 0000), lightly and polish the entire surface.
In the above ways you can repair your wooden furniture if scratches and hollows are seen before final finishing.
