Removing small dents from wood

[J.W.T.Smith]

Hi,

I managed to damage the wooden top of a new hi-fi speaker. The scrape was caused by the corner of a plastic foldable crate (rounded not sharp). The mark is across the grain and the indentations are deepest where the grain is soft and less where the grain is hard, so I assume this is real wood not veneered chipboard. The wood is open grained (I assume pine or spruce), stained black (not painted, you can see the grain as variations in black/grey) and polished/thin varnish).

I have heard of using heat to raise such indentations in wood but not sure how to do it. I don't feel like placing a hot iron on my new speaker :-) .

Does anyone know how to do this or can you suggest other possible techniques I could try?

Thanks for any suggestions,

John Smith.

[Stephen Howard]

Small indentations can be steamed up. The basic method is to wet the wood then apply a hot 'iron' to the dent. It's a bit of knack though, and best results are achieved through the use of suitably shaped irons ( to prevent unwanted peripheral expansion ). I generally use a gas flame to heat the irons. I work mostly with hardwood, so can use a bare iron - a softwood will probably required an intermediate thin wet cloth.

I'd recommend finding an old bit of pine and practicing.

Regards,

[Andy Hall]

The technique is to use a hot iron (steam iron is good) through a cloth pad. The idea is to warm, moisten and swell the grain. However, it may not work through varnish and only works where the wood is crushed as opposed to material having been removed.

[Lobster]

I'd go along with the suggestions of using the iron and steaming it - that trick really has to be seen to be believed! - however IIWY I'd investigate further whether this really is solid wood. Sounds unlikely to me that it would be, but I'm no audiophile: maybe it's normal? But anyhow, if it IS veneered chipboard I would think steaming would make a total balls of it.

David

[Guy King]

The message from [e-mail] contains these words:

Leave a nice ornament on top of the scratch.

[Owain]

Won't it vibrate and upset the audio waves?

Owain

[Guy King]

The message from Owain contains these words:

Blutack

[Owain]

Ta!

I wonder if Linn have a version called Blutak.

Owain

[Guy King]

The message from Owain contains these words:

D'yer know, it took me several goes to get the right spelling of that. I even tried Bostik's site - but they make no mention of it. Perhaps they've flogged it.

[Thomas Prufer]

Before going with steam and heat, plain cold water, locally applied and left (and watched) for a bit may work. Or at least give an indication if the method will work at all - it won't if the water can't get to the wood because of varnish, oil , wax... Steam will work, but may harm the finish so visibly that you end up wishing you had left it alone.

Thomas Prufer

[John Rumm]

There was an audio accessories maker that did a special version called Blacktak or something similar. The idea being it is less visible when it oozes out of the gap between base and thing you want isolated / fixed.

[J.W.T.Smith]

Hi,

Lobster and others who suggested this,

I tried the hot steam iron approach and it worked quite well. I've never done it before so I started with a damp cloth folded twice (4 layers), then once (2 layers) then just one layer. I was amazed how hot I got that piece of wood without causing it serious damage (though it did warp a tiny amount and the grain around the marked area was raised a little). I even tried it with just a sheet of paper kitchen towel but I never placed the iron directly on the surface. Fortunately this wooden piece is just trim so I was able to take it off and work on it away from the speaker.

It took over an hour to get an appreciable improvement and I suspect only a tiny amount of water got through the varnish but it did make a difference. The mark is still there but you have to look for it and have the light at the right angle.

Thanks,

John.