Repairing chewed wood

If you refer to a previous article on fast fixes for wood, I talk about repairing furniture that has been chewed by dogs - or scratched by cats. This is a frequent question that pops up, and chewed wood can be repaired.

 

One of the Divas that attending our recent Furniture Painting Workshop brought along a table lamp base that was very old and special to her. The piece matched her existing furniture and she wanted to know if it could be repaired. The lamp base had been chewed by her dog and a few of the corners were missing.

By using Alcolin QuikWood you can repair large areas of damage on wood. Alcolin QuikWood is a 2-part epoxy putty that sets rock hard. The two components are kneaded together and then applied to the damaged areas. The trick is to use your thumb to push the putty into the damaged spots and then spread it out.

GOOD TO KNOW
Wetting your finger helps to smooth the edges of the putty once you have filled up the damage.

Smaller cracks and splits were filled up with wood filler. There was quite a bit of damage to the lamp base, other than the missing chewed off pieces. Where the wood had been joined, there were large cracks, so I also squeezed in a small amount of wood glue as well.

When using Alcolin QuikWood you need to sand before the product completely cures. If you leave it until it has cured, it takes far longer to sand smooth. The easiest solution is to let the putty cure for about an hour, or until it has already started to harden and then sand.

Here you can clearly see a couple of corners that were chewed away. The epoxy putty fills up nicely and you can sand or use a Dremel Multitool to put back any detail needed to match the existing finish and shape.

Because the matching furniture is going to be sanded and then painted, the lamp base was sprayed with Rust-Oleum 2X in satin espresso. Only after sanding did I discover the lamp base was Meranti and not one of my favourite woods. It is a naturally orange colour and smells awful when you sand it.

The lamp base only need one light coat of Rust-Oleum 2X satin espresso. The point wasn't to completely cover the base with paint, but still be able to see some of the grain (of which there is very little on Meranti) through the paint.