The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Coloring Finishing And Painting Wood
Sometimes bad defects can be chiseled out, and a piece of wood having similar grain and color can be so carefully inlaid and glued into place that it will hardly show when finished. This kind of repair takes more time than other processes, but is permanent, and causes less disfigurement to the piece if done skilfully.
Another process now commonly used in factories is to fill the defective place with cabinet-maker's cement.3 This material is made for furniture factories, and comes in bricks having a color resembling wood. In use, fragments of cement are broken up, melted, and thinned with water to a thick paste which can be pressed into the defect with a putty-knife. The opening should be filled slightly too full when first put in place and sanded level after it has dried. The spot of cement will usually take stains nearly the same as the wood itself. If the cement la used on a dark-colored wood, or put in a spot in a cedar chest, the cement should be stained to the proper color with dry pigments before it is used. There are also water putties on the market that can be made into paste with cold water and pressed into place with a putty-knife.
An old method for repairing small defects is to secure some fine dust from sanding the surface of the wood which has the defect. This powder is then mixed with a liquid cold glue, making a paste which can be pressed into place with a putty-knife. When dry the spot can be sanded. A repaired place of this kind filled with glue paste will not stain well. Paste can be mixed with dry colors, however, while in the wet form and made nearer the proper color. Glue paste should be quite thick, and in use should not be spread over the surface of wood around the defect because glue sizes wood and prevents stain from "taking" when the article is stained later on.
Melted wax from shellac sticks may be run into small defects. This is usually done after the article is partly finished so that the color can be matched to better advantage. Shellac sticks in various colors can be purchased from supply-houses for furniture wood-finishing.
Dents can sometimes be removed by steaming with a, wet cloth and a hot iron. Hot water alone if put into a dent several times will sometimes swell the compressed fibers back to normal condition and thus practically remove the unsightly spot. A putty-knife, if carefully heated about as hot as a fiat-iron when used for ironing, will help to raise a dented spot if placed over wood that has been well moistened with water. In all of these cases the wood fibers are swelled by steam and are likely to assume nearly their original shape, thus causing the dent to disappear.
