Dents in wooden work-surface

[Timothy Murphy]

Is there any way of removing - or filling - small dents in a wooden kitchen working surface?

[Matty F]

I'd put a blob of water in each dent. That makes the wood swell. If the wood is sealed you may have to scratch the surface a bit, then reseal later.

[RubberBiker]

Another way of doing this, possibly helping to avoid water staining, is to put a damp cloth over the dent followed by a very hot iron - lifting the dent with steam.

[EricP]

Try gentle steaming if you have a steamer. The idea is to swell the wood fibres, but a dent is a dent.

[newshound]

I'd second that: remarkable how effective it can be. The structure of wood is a set of more or less parallel tubes, in the dented area a bunch of them are flattened. It's either the steam re-inflating them, or softening the structure so that they spring back into place.