Oops.....need advice

[John Ziebron]

I've been working on a couple of keepsake boxes for the grand kids and had an accident with one of them. I accidentally bumped it with a small, blunt metal object and put a small depression in it. My concern is that, along with stain and prefinish shellac, there are 5 coats of lacquer on it and I was getting ready to do a final buffing on it.

The wood is curly soft maple and the ding, as shown in the picture, is about 1/8" wide and I would guess about 1/64 or less deep. And, of course, this happened on the front face of the box.

In the past I've had somewhat success using the steam iron method to raise the grain on bare wood, but was never able to get it back completely. I'm thinking that method won't work in this situation because of all the finish layers on it. My only thought is to use wood filler and a few more coats of finish, but I thought I'd ask the experts here for advice.

[Joe Kieve]

You might try something like wax blend repair sticks such as these. I've had pretty good results in the past and there are several brands to choose from.
Beats having to sand and refinish.

[Jim Becker]

This may be one of those situations where the fix is worse than the problem...

[John TenEyck]

I think Jim is right. Leave it be. You are probably the only one who will notice it. If you can't accept that, then I think the only way to really fix it is to strip/sand and start over.

John

[Mel Fulks]

"Leave the bump ,bring the yelloli "

[Conrad Fiore]

If it's lacquer and you just want to hide the depression, then drop fill the depression with lacquer. Sand smooth with fine paper and put another coat over the piece.

[Alan Lightstone]

If it's lacquer and you just want to hide the depression, then drop fill the depression with lacquer. Sand smooth with fine paper and put another coat over the piece.

That would be my suggestion. Otherwise, leave it alone. And have the cannoli.

[Wayne Lomman]

Conrad had the right idea. Don't overfill the hole though and let each drop dry before adding another. Patience required. Cheers

[glenn bradley]

This may be one of those situations where the fix is worse than the problem...

I'm with Jim. You see it as terribly obvious because you know its there. I would give the gift and then blame the receiver for their carelessness.

[John Ziebron]

Thank you all for your answers. I decided to try Conrad's suggestion and only needed 2 applications to fill the dent. I waited a day and a half to be sure it was dry before sanding. Then applied 2 more coats of lacquer over the whole surface. The finish is perfectly smooth.

You can only see the dent under the finish if the light is hitting it at just the right angle. And, even then, it now looks like a small bird's eye. I really wanted to do something about this problem because the final finish is rubbed out to a high gloss and your eye is drawn more easily to defects than something like a satin finish IMHO. This fix worked out better than I expected, thank you.