Cabinets, Furniture, Woodworks/Tabletop Scratch

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Expert: - 7/31/2009


Question

Dining Table
HELP! I have a solid wood Bernhardt Table which has about a 4 inch scratch thru the veneer. I have filled it w/Famowwod Wood Filler, and it looks pretty good, but what should I do next? The stain is very light oak. Should I now apply matching paint to the area and hope for the best, or is there something else that would be better?

Answer
Hi Georgia,

Thanks for sending a photo, I wish everyone did that.  You say that you already filled the scratch with wood filler.  Be sure to let the filler completely dry and then sand it perfectly smooth and flat. Do this very carefully so that you don't enlarge the area that needs to be refinished. I would like to tell you to try to get a matching stain but that may cause its own problems  because lots of time, the filler does not take the stain correctly.  You can try a very little bit of an oil paint, you may have to mix a few colors to get the right color.  Thin it down considerably with a little linseed oil.  Your paint should be put on in very light layers till you build it up enough so it covers the putty and blends in with the wood around it.  Try to keep the brush strokes very small and in the direction of the grain. Kind of feather it out on the edges so there are no straight borders to the repair, if you can understand that.  After that, you are going to need to seal it all back up.  use a satin polyurethane spray can, again apply in light layers.  You may wind up needing to spray the entire top to even out the finish but not to worry, with the fast drying products available in spray cans, your table should be out of commission for only an hour or so.  Thanks for the question and good luck with your repair.

maura macaluso

Expertise

I can answer most questions, regarding, wood sculpture, wood carving, carving tools and accessories and different types of woods.I am not an appraiser of carvings nor an antique dealer.

Experience

I do full design work, custom carving, restoration, fabrication, repair and refinishing. I can take a piece of raw wood and turn it into a work of art and I can help you do the same. I am "the" carving instructor for the new york city parks dept. I am heavily involved in carving on the internet and belong to many, many mail lists which are quite active. I am also an international promoter of woodcarving and am affiliated with many master carvers, notably nora hall, originally from holland, now in the U.S. and kalina pavlova, a bulgarian master carver. I routinely communicate with the top names in professional woodcarving nationally and internationally.

Organizations
the national association of woodcarvers. the woodcarvers of queens NY, the staten island woodcarvers. the northeast woodcarving association. the world wide carving internet list

Publications
chip chats-the national magazine of woodcarving. also at www.carvinginnyc.com

Education/Credentials
Self taught artist and sculptor, 40 years of drawing and painting as a hobby, 5 years of serious woodsculpting. I have my own website and have written a 300 pg book on carving. I have published online tutorials and pictorial projects

Awards and Honors
many first place awards

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