I have a small ding in a Sapele table top I just built. It is half an inch long and about 1/16th of an inch wide. It is at a point where to boards came together during glueup. I have researched wood filler and wood putty and it sounds like wood filler is a better option. Am I correct? How would others fix this defect? The table is sanded but I have not applied finish yet. When I do finish I plan to use arm r Seal semi gloss
Photos help. An area of expertise of mine is defect repair. Like Herring suggested, if it's a dent, you can steam it out. If it's a gouge, you need to fill it.
Since it's on a table top, soft fills won't stand up to use. Like I said, without a photo, you won't get much help.
If all else fails there is always the option to patch, I resized an entertainment center during the build forgetting that I drew it at the first size because of some defects in the stock for the top. Wound up cutting templates and putting 3 heart shaped patches into the top, they're now my favorite part of the piece.
I dropped a maple box off my table saw that I was ready to apply finish to. really bad crush on one corner. I was ready to scrap it and thought,, might as well soak the corner with water and apply heat to it and see what happens.. to my surprise it worked really well. re sanded it and looked great.
I can't help you with so little information. "A small dent" could mean anything. As has been pointed out, if it's really a dent, meaning something hit it, you can steam it out. If it's a gouge, where something removed the wood, steaming won't work.
The idea behind steaming a dent is that a simple dent involves the wood cells being compressed. Steam will make them swell again and eliminate all or part of the dent.
Obviously, if the wood has been gouged out, that won't work and a filler is required. There are several different types of filler, and some are totally inappropriate for a table top. But the subject is too broad to cover in detail here.
Make some dents in some of your left over sapele similar to what you have to fix and try all of the methods above until you find one that works the best. I have steamed out many small dents with great success. Below is the link to more information on this site.
As mentioned above, pics help. If you decide wood filler, have you gave mixing your saw dust with glue and use you own filler concoction. Would most likely be a closer match.
I've been working with nothing but Sapele for the past 2 years. Sapele steams really well, start with that. If you find you have to use a filler the best match I found is Famowood walnut. White glue and sawdust will work if you are not staining the piece, but the glue will not stain the same so avoid that if you are staining.
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