Question for all you Woodworking experts

RedPine

Call me crazy but I would think this could be as simple as contacting a furniture repair/restoration place from the phone book. Seems like they could just take a look at it, tell you exactly what needs to be done then quote you a price.

Advertisement

kingkong

There are many products available from shoe polish to epoxy fillers to do the job.

Attached Images

	cs_at_dogchewa1_s.jpg (5.1 KB, 19 views)
	cs_at_dogchewb1_s.jpg (4.7 KB, 21 views)

Vance Wood

Thank you Wes, I feel like I have been talking to my dog, tongue hanging out, tail wagging, lights on but no one home. Furniture repair and restoration is what I have been doing for the last forty years and what I am telling them here is the truth. You are right the best thing would be to take it to a professional and get an opinion BUT ask them if they work with Catalyzed lacquers. If they say they don't use that stuff take it somewhere else.

There is one thing you can do that wont hurt the finish that might tell you what you are dealing with. Take a cotton swab, dip it in a little bit of denatured alcohol and dab it on the spots. If the spot seems to disappear as to color, then you are dealing with a regular organic lacquer, if the spot remains discolored then you are dealing with a catalyzed lacquer.

As to filling these defects you can use a soft fill but you will get a shiny spot when you are done, if you use a hard fill, aka a burn in you will get a shiney spot that will rise up on you or shrink depending on how much you fool around with it.

In all likely hood you are dealing with a 20 sheen pre-cat lacquer and the top will have to be re-coated to make the repair disappear.

__________________
The only finished bonsai is a dead one; me 1992 MABA Des Moines Iowa

Sohei

Vance, I am curious about using lemon oil for wood products if you don't know the finish. Is it good, bad or make any difference at all? I use lemon oil mainly to prevent cracking in the winter when my house is dry. Is this necessary or not?

Thanking you in advance for your input.

__________________
Progress might have been all right once, but it's gone on too long.

Vance Wood

What you are showing here is most likely a common nitro cellulose lacquer finish. Things like Shelac and varnish have not been used comercially for almost a half century except in rare out of the way hand crafted items.

The product I have been screaming about is a lacquer used almost universally by manufacturers world wide because it is easy to apply, it does not need to be rubbed out and its cheap. But once dry it is a grizzly bear to re-pear. You just don't throw some wax on it without paying a price for that endeavour.

Everything you do is going to impact the sheen of the finish on the surface you play around with. Where once it may have been mat, satin or flat in sheen any rubbing with steel wool, abrasive cloth, sand paper, or even terry cloth will turn the spot you have rubbed on into a shiny spot that will stand out like a Chevy in a punch bowl.

__________________
The only finished bonsai is a dead one; me 1992 MABA Des Moines Iowa

Vance Wood

Lemon oil generally will not harm a finish. The problem arises when you are using it on an open pored wood with little finish on it like Oak. It will penetrate into the wood, which is not so bad unless you at some point want to have the piece refinished. Then it is a nightmare because most lacquers will not tolerate the presence of this oil in the wood. The only way to get around this problem outside of a real industrial strength stripper would be to French Polish the piece.

The use of lemon oil is not necessary but it wont hurt anything as long as you don't get carried away and soak the piece in the stuff. If you are doing something like a table top I would suggest you don't use the oil on the top but climb under the table and apply it to the underside of the table where it really needs it. The underside is generally never finished outside of some stain and the oil can be beneficial in these locations. Most warpage and cracking is caused by the unequal surfaces absorbing or releasing moisture at different rates. The oil helps to stabilize the unfinished surface and lessen the uneven response to temperature and humidity.

__________________
The only finished bonsai is a dead one; me 1992 MABA Des Moines Iowa

ianb

Wow, thanks for all the replies everyone, lots to digest and think about. I'm not going to rush in to do this myself as I know next to nothing about refinishing. Really wanted to know how big a deal trying to get this fixed would be.

Initially I'll keep the scratches at the back during display, with a nice shohin on there I'm sure it won't be noticed by many. In the long run I'll probably let a professional take a look at it.

Thanks again

Ian