Giant Gash in Dinning Room table.

[classiccaprice]

Hey Fellas, It's been a while. I brought home my great-grandmothers dinning room table today and in the process of moving it I got a deep gash in it. It needs to be refinished anyways, but is there anyway to get the gash out?

 

[classiccaprice]

Here it is. It's about 1/8-3/16 inches deep. Can I get that out with refinishing? It's a beautiful ~1950 Mahogany table (though it is a little scratched from my great grandmother). I'm so mad at myself.

 

[qsd-dan]

Hey there stranger, long time no post!

That should come right out during the refinishing process. It doesn't look too deep to me as I have seen much worse brought back to it's original beauty.

 

[polkanut]

If you are planning on refinishing it anyway, you could apply moist direct heat to draw the indented wood up. When I worked for a major wood window mfr., we did this all the time to get rid of dings and dents. Use a very damp double thickness of paper toweling, and then apply heat with a hot dry iron. Keep the paper towel moist to create steam, and avoid burning the paper towel. Be patient, it may take several treatments.

 

[sudsmaster]

3/16" deep is pretty deep... how did you measure it? I'd try the moist heat but if the gash removed material instead of just denting it I'd guess that you're gonna have to fill the gouge during the refinishing process. If it's solid mahogany it will probably go better since you don't have to worry about a veneer lifting up and such.

These things happen. But I'd say that if you can get a smooth surface finish, even if the filled gash looks a little different, it will probably be forgotten in due time.

One trick for filling in spots is to used some sawdust from the actual wood you're refinishing. Mix that in with a neutral plastic wood, and fill the gash. If you can't be cutting into the actual wood, maybe some scrap mahogany will yield the right sawdust. Of course you'll have to stain it and hopefully it will take the same level of stain as the undamaged wood. You could try testing it before hand on another piece of scrap mahogany to be sure.

 

[toggleswitch2]

But is there any way to get the gash out?

Concrete and two stitches.

 

[classiccaprice]

Thanks Dan for the encouragement.

Tim- I may try that, it couldn't hurt if I'm going to refinish eventually anyway.

Rich- It's my guestimate, it is a fairly deep gash though. That's a good idea when I refinish it. It's going to take a while before I get there though.

Steve- I think I'll pass on the concrete. Thanks anyway.

 

[rickr]

Wood is very "forgiving" so the gash should come out during refinishing. The older finishes were very thick, and so the gash may not be as deep into the wood as you think. Perhaps you might get by just refinishing the table top alone. I have done that few times. You just have to be careful in choosing the stain colour. Sometimes a "custom blend" works the best to match the existing shade.

 

[classiccaprice]

Good point, thanks Rick.