smokers burn

[Arnold -- Sudbury]

Hi, All. A friend has an oak table with a burn on it, and asked me to try and fix it. Any advice would be appreciated. I had thought of sanding the burn out then fill with a mix of glue and sawdust.but ??? Thanks in advance Arnold

[Bryan Cowing]

[Arnold -- Sudbury]

Bryan,Hi. It is solid top Arnold

[Bryan Cowing]

I havn't done this myself but read it in a tip some where. After cleaning out the burnt area, color match as best as possible and use clear finger nail polish to fill in.(Lee valley sells laquer sticks that you melt in but I have not had any experience with this either). Maybe not a perfect repair but the alternative would be to sand and refinish.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?SID=&page=20071&category=1%2C190%2C42997% 2C42999&ccurrency=1 (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?SID=&page=20071&category=1%2C190%2C42997%2C42999&ccurrency=1)
http://www.leevalley.com/images/item/woodworking/finishing/80k7001g1.jpg

[Arnold -- Sudbury]

[Bud Christiansen]

The usual way to fix this problem is to clean the burn down to clean wood, then fill with either shellac stick or lacquer sticks, carefully colour-matched. I've used both in the past, and I prefer using lacquer, with a hot knife. As noted in this thread, Lee Valley carries everything you need... and with some practise you can do a repair that is undetectable! This is a skill that is very much in demand by high-end furniture stores, and moving companies, so you may find yourself with a whole new source of income!!!

[J.P.Rap Hamilton]

A freind of mine repaired an oak table top with a 5 in dia. burn from a pot.I stared at that spot for years before I realised it was a repair.(I thought it was a stain).He sanded out the burnt wood, filled it with wood filler and drew the grain in with a pen.Then he refinished the top.The color match was very poor but the grain pattern he drew in was good enough to fool me.I'm not suggesting you use wood filler but with the proper coloring that 5"repair would have been almost invisible.If you use something like the wax stick ,I susspect you would have to mach the finished color as opposed to the raw wood color since the repair won't change color like the wood will when finished.(no experiance ,just a guess)
J.P.