How to fix scratches on wood table?
Answer
Here are a few effective ways to fix scratches on a wood table:
- Use a furniture touch-up marker that matches the color of your table. Rub the marker over the scratch to blend it in with the surrounding wood. Let the ink soak in for 20-30 seconds before wiping away any excess with a paper towel3.
- For deeper gouges, use a wax filler stick in a matching color. Rub the wax into the scratch, then scrape off any excess with a credit card or flexible plastic. Buff the area with a clean cloth when done3.
- Make a homemade scratch remover by mixing 1 part white vinegar with 2 parts olive oil. Soak a rag in the solution and rub it into the scratches in a circular motion. Let sit for 2 minutes, then wipe clean with a fresh rag. The vinegar helps fill the scratch while the oil darkens and protects the exposed wood5.
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For light scratches, rub the area with a walnut or pecan shell. The natural oils help blend the scratch into the surrounding wood.4
- Sand the scratch lightly with fine 180-240 grit sandpaper, following the wood grain. Then apply a matching furniture wax or oil to the sanded area to blend and protect it25.
References
1. Woman has a 'nutty' hack for fixing scratches on her wooden table2. 3 Ways to Patch a Scratch - WOOD Magazine3. 3 Ways to Fix Scratches in Furniture - wikiHow4. 5 Easy Ways to Fix Scratched Furniture - YouTube5. 6 Ways To Remove Scratches from Your Table - Grain & Frame
Author: ROSS TAYLOR WOODWORKING
Key insights
- ️ The focus will be on repairing the finish on the top surface, leaving the rest of the table in perfect condition.
- Stripping and redoing the top surface is the first step in repairing scratches on a table top.
- Using a towel over two by fours can protect the bottom of the table top during repair.
- Adding a little mahogany dye in all the scratches can result in a huge improvement after wet sanding.
- The process of filling in scratches on a table top involves spraying acrylic over the area and repeating the process multiple times until the scratches are filled in.
- ️ Touching up light spots on the table top before applying the top coat is an important step in the repair process.
- ️ Wet sanding, rubbing with a maroon pad and steel wool, and finishing up with wax can help repair scratches on a table top.
- Despite successfully filling in the scratches, there are still faintly visible scratches and other dark spots and dings in the finish that blend in.
Video Full Text
- Hello and welcome back to ross trailer woodworks. Uh this time. I've got a mahogany card table a circle of maybe 1830 or so uh beautiful table. The leaves lift up and then the top spins. It's got some nice brass inlay uh. The only thing this is in for is the top got badly scratched. Somebody was moving a lamp or something on the top here and it got badly scratched. The rest of the table is in perfect condition so it's going to leave everything else alone concentrate on trying to repair the finish. On this top surface. This can't be repaired.Read More
- Then I'll have to strip this top surface and redo the top surface first thing to do is to get the screws out. Here. There's three screws on each side uh to take the leaf off the hinge. I thought oh maybe. I can take the whole top off both leaves together and I looked underneath and there's a bolt with a nut so just backed off the nut and the whole top will just lift right off so for now. I'll just lift the whole top off.Read More
- I try to work on it um with all the leaves together if I need to uh later on. I'll take. The screws out just take the one leaf off and this bolt has a square shank on it that fits in a square hole and this spins all right. I moved it down into the finishing room. I'm going to set up a little prop to prop it up off the table since that bolt sticks out to the bottom and put the towel over the two by fours just to protect the bottom of the top. Now first thing is go over the whole thing with some tsp.Read More
- It'll clean off all the oils waxes and old polishes now what I'm going to do is start trying to repair the scratches. What I'm going to do is a process called cutting back and in this case I'm going to start off with some wet sanding. I could either do dry sanding or wet sanding this case. I'm going to do wet sanding to start. I'm going to cut back the finish and one advantage of wet sanding. I can see what the scratches look like when they're wet and see how much they'll disappear with the new finish and I'm wet sanding with naphtha and 320 grit paper now after the wet sanding. I'm going to take a little bit of a red mahogany dye and put a little mahogany dye in all the scratches and just after the wet sanding is a huge improvement.Read More
- The scratches are much less visible. Now the next series of steps is going to be spraying some acrylic over the area where the scratches are. I'm going to start filling in the scratches. This is a process of spraying some acrylic over the area. Let it dry and then cut back the area around the scratches. I'm going to repeat this maybe a dozen times until the scratches are filled in okay. We've got the last coat of acrylic over the scratches. I'm going to let that dry cut it back again. Now it looks like.Read More
- I'm ready to do the top coat. The scratches are completely filled but first I'm going to do a little more touch up. There's some light spots on the top there. I'm going to touch those up now. I'm ready for the top coat in this case. I'm going to top coat it with the spray acrylic and do what's called dust or mist coating. I'm going to do about a dozen coats uh. This is just one coat misting it back and forth. I'm gonna do this for a little bit.Read More
- Let it dry come back do it again and repeat that about a dozen times. I went to build up the finish without getting orange peel now after that dried for a couple of days after the last coat of dust cutting. I'm going to wet sand it again rub it with the maroon pad and some steel wool and finish up with some wax okay.Read More
- That's it for this one just a quick repair on this top took a few days to do as you recall uh there was uh some deep scratches right. Here. A lamp or something was sitting here and I turned a lamp or something so uh what I try to do in these cases is try to cut back the finish and fill in the scratches. So I was successfully able to fill in the scratches first by cutting back the finish and then successfully do successive coats of spray in this area cut it back another coat of spray cut it back again and keep doing that until the scratches are completely filled. Then do in this case. I did what's called mis-coating or dust coating just avoid any orange peel of any kind. So I did that maybe a dozen times to build up the finish and then rubbed it out. Now the scratches are still faintly visible uh but there's other dark spots and dings in the finish so that all kinds just blends in you.Read More