Untitled - Wood Tools

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INVISIBLE REPAIR
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I scratched the surJace of my dining table in a receltt moue. Now I lose my
appetite looking at that awful scratch. Any tips on how I can fx it?
Chris Cascalenda
Itguna Beach, CA
,i' A nosty scrotch such os this one presents two
refinishing chollenges: First, motching the stoin
color, ond second, duplicoting the originol finish.
l.::, One ofthe grcatest finishing
,i,,,.:, challenges is matching a
'i, I'r repair to the surrounding
wood.The first challenge is matching
the stain color, and the second is
duplicating the original finish.
Stain the Scratch - Ifthe scratch
has penetrated the finish and changed
the color of the wood (Photo at left),
then begin by restoring the color.
The easiest way I ve found to do this
is by using a stain market (Fig. 1).
Eight colon ofstain markers are available
from Minwax
or Olympic.
Sometimes, a combination of two
colors will do the trick, so you may
want to experiment on a scrap piece.
Replace the Finish - After letting
the stain dry for four hours, the
next step is repairing the finish.The
idea is to carefully "paint" a fine line
of finish directly on the scratch (Frg.
2).Wipe offany finish that lands outside
the scratch.
Match the Sheen - When the
polyurethane dries (4-6 hours later),
chances are the sheen ofthe repair
won't match the table exactly.To
address this, apply a thin layer offinish
to the entire tabletop (Fig. 3)
Ifyou can still feel the scratch,
lightly sand the area while the finish
is wet to smooth it out (Fig. 4).
AIier smoothing, take a cloth and
remove as much finish as you can
from the tabletop.The thin layer of
finish that remains creates a nice,
uniform sheen on the entire table.
Workbench ond Bruce Johnson,
Minwox finishing expert, ore
teoming up to onswer your questions
obout finishing.
Send your ftnishing questions fo:
Mqil: Workbench Q&A
22QO Grond Avenue
Des Moines, lA 503 l2
Emqil: ditor@norft hmhmoq.com
Once you find o color motch, rub the
tip of the stoin morker olong the scrotch.
Use o cloth to remove exces stoin.
', When the stoin hos dried, use on
ortist's brush to opply Minwox FosF
Drying Polyurethone to the scrotch.
Winners
receive
: o FREE
To motch the sheen of the repoir to
the toble, wipe o thin loyer of Minwox
WipeOn Poly over the entire tobletop.
With the finish still wet, gently sond
the scrotch with 600grit sondpoper to
smooth it. Then remove excess finish.
1.2 woRKBENcH ft luNr 2004