The tops of items such as dining room tables, kitchen tables, dressers, desks, chests, end or coffee tables or similar items frequently have sustained damage to the finish on the top. Since they are on the top the damages are very visible, especially as one looks across or down the item with good light or windows on the other end.
These Finish Repair procedures should be left to professionals. They ae not a home remedy.
The damages might be a minor abrasion into the finish that does not penetrate the finish to the color or wood below. At the same time the finish itself could be a toned tinted finish with no stain color below. The common aspect is that the abrasion is in the thin top layer of the finish and not thru the finish into the wood. The damages might be a series of very minor nicks and dings of similar depth.
The damages might be from something else attacking the finish to cause it to become irregular. In the moving world it often happens from a cardboard carton being moved around on an item's top without protection. It could also be from a heavy item having been placed on the damaged item without adequate protection from vibration.
Another class of damage is from beyond any of the above likely causes, but it has penetrated the finish and cause wood fibers to be torn or gouged. In such a situation the cavity must first be re-leveled to the surrounding finish level, usually by a process called “lacquer burn-in”. The residue of the process is that the damage area has an edge that looks like a hair floating in water… a very fine line. The repair area could also be of a different gloss level than the rest of the item.
The gloss or sheen level of the finish on the item is important. Generally, the highest sheen level is high gloss on a paste wood filled grain, moving down to high gloss, semi-gloss, satin, dull or flat sheen. A paste wood filled grain has had the raw wood grain texture filled or leveled with special wood dust to make it appear water smooth without resulting in one gloss level or another. The higher the sheen level of the top of the item the harder it is to eliminate the damage. Any goal of a sheen level of semi-gloss or high-gloss requires first to take the surface down to a lower sheen and then to power polish it back up to the higher sheen. It becomes an elusive goal.
The kind of finish itself is an important factor. Generally furniture items 30 or so years old have a varnish finish. With age it has deteriorated and may limit what can be done. Newer manufactured items usually have a solvent-based lacquer finish. A lacquer finish is very repairable. Some more modern manufactured items have a water based lacquer finish that is not easily repairable. A few select typically imported items may have a polyester finish that is usually high gloss and extremely difficult to repair.
THE PROCESS:
Having defined the aspects of the item that impact the ability to repair damage to an item’s top layer of finish, the following is a general description of the processes involved.
The item and the work on it can best and most cost effectively be done in the shop work environment. That means the item or its top must be removed and brought to the shop.
The top surface is cleaned with special solvents to remove to the maximum degree possible all prior applications of polish, wax, or other soiling like foodstuffs or body oils. Whatever the sheen was originally, or that existed before the process started, has now been lowered moderately.
The total top surface is lightly sanded or scuffed with very fine abrasives such as 400 grit. The process lowers the sheen level. The result is that all imperfections in the surface of the finish are not fully evident.
The worse damage spots are then identified and the repairs are begun. The damaged spot is very carefully hand scuffed with various very smooth grits of abrasive to abrade away the damage to the maximum degree possible. Technically a scooped out area is created larger than the immediate damage. If the damage happens to be a long scratch, especially if across the grain, the goal is to abrade away enough of the scratch line so that as a minimum it is reduced to a series of very minor scratches that visually are not connected. It should be realized that the typical scratch has a deeper start location, then becomes less deep, and may again or not be deeper. If a 6” scratch is reduced to a minor ½” and another ¾” then visually that is much better.
The complicating aspect is that the skilled finish repairer performing the process works carefully but knows they went too deep only when it has occurred. By going too deep an area of any toned tinted finish might now be different and require re-coloring corrective actions. It is also possible to go too deep all the way to the wood removing even stain color. Again corrective action is required.
Once the repairer becomes aware of the general depth or thickness of the finish, he can be more controlled in working the other damage areas, but still absolute control is not possible. It is a constant decision of whether to leave a minor percent of the damage area or to go further and eliminate it totally.
Once all of the damage areas are abraded to reduce or eliminate their presence, the top will technically have a scooped out area at each location. To make them appear better the total top surface is then rubbed more extensively with finer and finer grits.
It is best to expect a hand rubbed satin finish sheen when the process is completed.
But, based on the departure sheen that might have been higher, it is then possible to polish the hand rubbed satin finish back up to a higher sheen level. That polishing process can also include a power polishing machine that throws abrasive compound and that is another reason it should be done in the shop. We strongly recommend against such proceduers and instead then recommend total refinishing.
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