How To Repair Gouge In Teak Wood

It never fails. Yous spend hours picking out the choice forest at the lumber yard. Sorting through the damaged pieces is always a chore merely a necessary step when using forest equally the terminal finish on your project. Even after all of that work, somehow when you bring the piece of wood dorsum to the store, you find a gouge or dent you hadn't noticed before. No need to caput back to the lumber grand to give the zombie-like teenager stacking the wood a piece of your mind. We're combining some expertise from the great video The Way to Woodworking: Step by Pace to the Perfect Terminate, with some project feel of our own to tame woods blemishes for good. Utilize these tips and tricks for repairing dents, dings and gouges in wood and save yourself the trouble of repeated trips to the lumber thou.

What's the Difference between a Gouge and a Dent?

Both a dent and a gouge – Photos Courtesy of *The Way to Woodworking: Step past Step to the Perfect Terminate*

There's a large departure between a gouge and a dent when information technology comes to wood. A dent in wood is one of the easiest to repair and takes just a trivial bit of water and oestrus to repair. Dents only compress the wood fibers and with some good erstwhile fashioned steam, you tin brand the wood fibers rise back into identify.

A gouge is a bit more complicated and requires that you make full the gouge with forest putty. That's considering a gouge actually rips the woods fibers. Once the fibers are ripped, the only tried and true way to fix the damage is past filling in the gouge with some matching woods putty.

Fixing a Wood Dent

If it's not quite breaking the wood fibers, it can be steamed out. — If it's not quite breaking the forest fibers, it can usually be steamed out.

In the video from The Woodworker's Journal and our good sponsors at Rockler titled The Style to Woodworking: Step-past-Pace to the Perfect Finish, Michael Dresdner, one of the leading authorities on finishing and staining, demonstrates a simple fashion to fix a woods paring using a clothes atomic number 26.

I am Iron Man! — Bet you never idea y'all'd use this tool – Using an iron to steam out a paring

Commencement, you'll need to add a few drops of h2o to the dent using a small brush or rag. Afterward the water absorbs into the paring, you'll demand to cover the dent with a damp cloth. Using a apparel iron assail its highest setting; identify the iron onto the damp rag for a few seconds. Pick up the cloth and check the dent. The crushed forest fibers should have risen back to their original position. If not, add some more water and try once more. I like to add a bit of white distilled vinegar to deep dents equally the vinegar tends to help actually bend the forest fibers dorsum into their original shape.

Fixing a Gouge

An example of a gouge that reminds me of Wile E. Coyote — An example of a gouge that reminds me of when Wile E. Coyote falls off the cliff

Gouges can only be eliminated with wood putty. It actually doesn't set the gouge, information technology just hides it. You'll still be able to meet the forest putty until you stain, dye or blend it into the surrounding wood. And sometimes that can exist a scrap tough to exercise.

To repair a gouge using wood putty, fill up the depression with plenty of the stuff so that it overflows out of the gouge. This mode, when the putty shrinks, y'all won't take to make full the gouge again. Some putties are more decumbent to "shrinkage" than others. Allow the putty dry out overnight before sanding it with a flat sanding block. The reason why need a flat sanding block is and so that you don't get a low in the forest putty when you're sanding with your easily. Evidently, you can't use a flat sanding block on a curved piece of forest. My betoken is to match the surface of the material with the sanding device so y'all don't take out extra putty and reveal the gouge. In one case sanded, the gouge should be visible with no boosted putty surrounding the damaged wood.

Fill er' up — Fill up er' up with forest filler liberally to avoid shrinkage

Choosing a wood putty that matches the lightest background colour of the wood helps to ensure that after finishing, the putty doesn't stand out similar a sore thumb. But even when you choose a putty colour that matches the wood, it may however react differently to the stain or finish and testify up as a blotch when the final finish is applied. Always be sure to test stain and end the dried putty on a bit slice of wood outset. This fashion, you lot can make sure you're going to disguise the gouge and non make it the center of attending. We'll have more details on disguising the putty in a future commodity, stay tuned!

Some people prefer to apply a mix-it-yourself wood putty, so that you can blend various shades together to create a perfect color match. I notice that to be actually tedious and wood putty doesn't always stay the same color after it has been stained. My trick is to use saw dust and a bit of wood mucilage to create my own wood putty on smaller gouges. I salve the saw dust from the dust handbag on my sander after I've sanded the wood. The wood dust is a perfect color match for any gouge repairs and information technology doesn't cost me a dime to make. All-time of all, the stain will always match perfectly to the surrounding wood because essentially it's the same stuff. Good day-adieu gouges and dents!

Since Eric congenital his first skateboard ramp in his parents driveway; he's breathed, slept and eaten DIY construction. As a second generation master carpenter who runs two Florida-based construction firms, Eric's had the chance to piece of work on everything from Mcmansions to your local mall to the cat lady'south bathroom. So when information technology comes to dealing with structure s@#t; he's the human—literally. There isn't a tool or construction textile that Eric hasn't used and driveling, and if there is; it's rocking in a dark corner nervously waiting for him to testify up for piece of work.