Need help - Flattened a corner!

[Bryan Berguson]

I was sanding a blanket chest and while turning it over without having the proper hold of course, I dropped it on one corner. It was flattened about 5/16ths of an inch.

Should I:
A. Try to steam it out.
B. Reform it with colored epoxy.
C. Try cutting out just enough to glue a new piece of wood in, like a 3/8ths block.

It's butternut btw and a dovetail joint and luckily on the back bottom of the box.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Bryan

[Todd Burch]

You can get it REAL wet and see it that works. If not, cut and patch.

Todd

[Jamie Buxton]

In my experience, steam works better than water. Wet the ding, and then touch it with a hot iron. You probably won't get it to return to the original shape. But you can see how much it returns, and then decide whether more severe repairs are required. If you're going to patch it, I'd use wood, not epoxy. The wood will be a small contrast at the seam, and the epoxy will be a larger one.

[glenn bradley]

You can get it REAL wet and see it that works. If not, cut and patch.

Todd

Todd's got it. Thank goodness for the location, location, location.

[Doug Shepard]

A picture might help. 5/16" is pretty deep. Maybe seeing it would help us suggest something.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Cut a contrasting piece of wood and make the same "repair" to all four corners. Turn a problem into a design embellishment.

[Jeff Booth]

I did Mitchell's suggestion recently to a inset table top, it turned out nicely. Having said that, you are lucky about it being butternut, in my experience it is pretty easy to match grain & hide gluelines with butternut (of course I have the luxury of having purchased a whole tree cut to 4/4 for $1/bdft ). You can always try the butternut patch, and if you don't like it you can remove it and put in the contrasting wood.

Good luck.

Jeff

[Bryan Berguson]

I do like the contrasting wood corner idea but I think I'll try the steaming method first. I've seen it done before on rifle stocks but never tried it myself. Thanks for the replies and reinforcements. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Jeff, I had a butternut tree cut up 10 or 12 years ago for 15 cents per board foot. This project is the last of it. I love the way it looks but I could do without the dust and smell. It seems to bother my sinuses a bit but not quite as bad as basswood. Those are the only 2 woods that bother me.

Bryan

[Cary Swoveland]

I was sanding a blanket chest and while turning it over without having the proper hold of course, I dropped it on one corner. It was flattened about 5/16ths of an inch.

Should I:
A. Try to steam it out.
B. Reform it with colored epoxy.
C. Try cutting out just enough to glue a new piece of wood in, like a 3/8ths block.

It's butternut btw and a dovetail joint and luckily on the back bottom of the box.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Bryan

When this sort of thing happens, I often try to think how I might add a "feature" to replace the damaged area. For example, after marring the top edge of a box recently, I inserted contrasting wood in a rabbit that I cut all around the top edge. It looked better than pre-mishap.

Having said this, considering that you damaged the end of a dovetail joint, on a bottom corner, I'd just repair it. Because of the size of the dent, I'd go with your option "C". By selecting the patch piece carefully for color and grain, and avoiding a butt joint in the direction of the grain (by tapering both the patch and existing piece so that the end of the former overlays the latter), I'd think you could make the fix almost invisible.

I think we'd all be interested in seeing before and after pictures.

Cary

[Bryan Berguson]

The iron worked! I used a small iron that I had for RC airplanes which gave me better control. Thanks again for the suggestions!

Bryan