Hello;
I’m ready to finish a buffet. Its plywood core veneered with 1/8″ highly figured teak. On one side there was some tearout from the planer that I did not catch before veneering to the core. Although not on the most noticable side, I would like to repair this before finishing
What would be the best way to repair this? The tearout consists of several small tears (no more than 1/32″ in depth and diameter) in an area of about 1″ square.
I plan the following finishing plan: wash coat, stain (umber), wash coat, glaze (mahogany), top coat, buff, topcoat, buff, buff, buff, etc.
I’ve considered the following: wash coat and staining first (as planned). Making up a sawdust / shellac paste with a drop or two of same stain, then filling and sanding. Another alternative is to fill with epoxy /sawdust / stain. I really want to colour the piece as the test pieces looked great.
Any thoughts?
Rob
Replies
I would probably try to scrape the tearout away with a fine card scraper, rather than trying to disguise with filler. If the veneer is 1/8" thick and tearout only 1/32" you have plenty of material to work with still.
Scraping will result in a bit of a dip in the area of course. You may be able to feather it out into the surrounding area, or better yet scrape the whole surface to keep it level.
Filling will likely be visible no matter how carefully you do it.
Good luck!
The sawdust and glue route is almost always more trouble than it is worth, the mix doesn't look anything like intact wood around it and the glue will get into the surrounding wood and cause finishing problems.
As already suggested, the first thing to try is a properly sharpened cabinet scraper. Depending on the damage it might completely fix things or at least greatly reduce the torn out area. After that I would go ahead and finish the piece completely and use wax filler crayons for any final touch up.
Shop Manager for FWW Magazine, 1998 to 2007
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