Scratches on the surface of your favorite furniture that appear during operation or careless handling can cause a feeling of deep annoyance from a spoiled appearance. However, do not be upset - there are many effective ways to eliminate or mask these ugly marks.
If striking scratches have formed on the wooden furniture, and there is not a single specialized tool at hand to fix them, you can use improvised materials that can equally solve such problems. But before restoration work, it is necessary to thoroughly clean the furniture to eliminate dust, wax and traces of various polishes.
When cleaning furniture, it is important not to allow excessive waterlogging so that the tree does not swell and warp.
Surface scratches that appear on the top of the furniture are among the most easily fixed defects. For dark furniture, you can use the pulp of any fatty nuts: walnuts, almonds, Brazilian or pecan. The peeled nut is gently rubbed in the direction of the scratch, being careful not to touch the area around it to avoid unnecessarily darkening the undamaged surface of the furniture. The nut mass is left for some time for exposure, after which the furniture is carefully polished with a soft cloth or felt.
Soft cosmetic eyeliner pencils or children's wax crayons for painting no less effectively mask scratches. The tool is carefully selected by color, so that its shade matches the color of the furniture being repaired, then carefully scratch the surface and polish the surface.
It is not recommended to use this method for the restoration of antique furniture.
If light wood furniture needs to be repaired, an ordinary wax or paraffin unpainted candle is used to mask a surface scratch. The edges of the candles rub a scratch, moving first along and then across its direction. Thus, they achieve filling the furrow with wax and leveling the surface, which subsequently needs to be polished.
Shallow chips and scratches on a red or very dark wood are painted over with iodine, spotted with a cotton swab or a thin brush for drawing. Iodine is left to dry completely and the degree of staining of the wood is checked. With insufficient effect, two to three more layers are applied. To obtain a lighter shade, iodine is diluted with alcohol, after which they begin to paint over furniture defects.
In some cases, you can mask scratches on dark furniture with a saturated solution of black tea or coffee grounds. A cotton swab is dipped in tightly brewed tea or coffee and applied to a scratch, avoiding liquid from entering the rest of the furniture. After one to two minutes, the tree is wiped dry with a paper towel, if necessary, repeat the same sequence of actions.
Repairing deep scratches implies more complicated restoration procedures: first, the defects are cleaned with sandpaper, and then gently putty with special means for furniture or tinted epoxy. After that, the hardened putty is ground with fine-grained sandpaper, coated with stain and varnished.
