Let's face it, furniture gets scratched, scuffed and scarred.
Let's face it, furniture gets scratched, scuffed and scarred.
For serious surface damage you’ll likely have to refinish the surface – a lot of work (or expensive if you hire someone else to do the work). Minor blemishes are easier to deal with. If you don’t have a lot of re-finishing experience, then you owe it to yourself to check out Dover Finishing Products’ Trade Secret Furniture Restoration Kit.
This kit contains a scratch remover for dark woods (like mahogany or cherry), one for light woods (such as maple or pine), a furniture polish and cleaner, and four wax sticks. The scratch removers and polish are mineral oil based products compatible with just about any finish. I found that for hairline scratches the scratch removers worked well. There was no waxy build up and it left a rather nice sheen on the surface. I tried the polish/cleaner on an old dresser that had seen better days, and was pleased with the results. It did a good job of removing a thin wax build-up along with its accumulated grime build-up. The wax sticks are blended from high grade wax, and won’t shrink. You can apply the polish/cleaner or varnish, poly or lacquer over the wax without worrying about softening or bleeding colours. They worked nicely on filling thin gaps on some rather less than perfect joints that I had cut. The Trade Secret Restoration Kit is good value, particularly for someone who doesn’t know a lot about re-finishing or if you simply want a quick and easy fix.
Carl Duguay - [email protected]
Carl is a Victoria-based furniture maker and the web editor at Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement.
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