One of the best products for wood repair I have come across in 35 years of being in the furniture business is Epoxy Putty by JB Weld. This stuff is magic, and it's tenacious, this repair never lets go and you can fully restore wood damage with it. Don't buy those one-step wood repair products, they cannot hold an edge and will crumble out if put on a corner. This stuff never fails, at least in my experience.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002NJDAJY...lig_dp_it&th=1
I repaired this knuckle on this handmade tiger maple armchair I have in my own home 21 years ago when we moved into our current house. My friend Dave was helping me move and caught the tip of the arm on a door and sheared off, we could not find the chip. It was one of only two damages we had in the move. So I recreated the feature using the epoxy putty. It was harder to get the color right than to create the arm detail lines, the red area shows the missing piece. That putty is amazing stuff, and if you ever work with it, keep a small bowl of water nearby and keep your fingers moist, it allows you to smooth and create the detail lines, you have about 10 minutes open time from when mixed. Once it hardens, it's all sandpaper from there on out.
These photos were taken today, 21 years after the work was completed. Still holding, and if I didn't outline the area you would never pick up on it.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
Wow, you did a great job! What did you use to mix the color? It doesn't look like it comes with different dyes or anything to mix inio it.
That is a pretty nice repair Duane!
Sue, from my experience, there are a few different ways to add color, because the putty stuff is usually paintable but sometimes doesn't take stain very well. When you are kneading it together you can knead in fine sawdust to help get it closer to the color you want and blend in the repair (you can use the same trick with 50/50 wood glue to fill in scratches and nicks), or powdered pigments (can find at craft stores). Another option would be using the wood colored markers to color it after it sets up a bit. Alcohol based markers would probably work best.
Thanks. Color is never a single step, it is about fifteen steps that require toners, sealers, tints, clears in a test-and-try experiment. A lot of times I will use oil based artist paints as well. It’s not as easy and grabbing a spray can and shooting the area in most cases.
Its alway the color and sheen that are the difficult parts of a wood finish repair, and horizontal flat surfaces are the worst (like table tops) due to the reflectivity over a large area.
Last edited by drcollie; 07-26-2022 at 07:30 AM.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.