Finishing Wood Table

[Hotlanta]

I hope someone can offer up a good suggestion. My wife recently bought a wood table from Restoration Hardware that they were selling for a small fortune. She managed to haggle them down to over 60% off because of small, very fine surface scratches that barely penetrate the stain and poly finish. I believe the wood is nothing fancier than pine glue-up but my wife loves the color. I promised her I could fix it and make it look brand new and then proceded to wax it using 0000 Steel wool and non-silicone furniture wax. Well, when I finished it looks horrible. I have even more fine scratches than I started with and I can barely get the wax off. I even pulled out my power buffer and it didn't make a dent. So, my question is, is there any way to suggest turning this scratched piece into a fine finish without sanding and re-finishing the whole thing?

I contacted a friend of mine with a furniture repair business but even then I am looking at least at $250.00 for them to even take it to their shop for minor repairs.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[kwgeorge]

I guess the question becomes, how deep are the scratches? Are they into the finish or just at the surface of the top coat? If so then you could wet sand with some 1200 grit paper and probably get out of trouble. For even a higher shine you could finish off with Rotten Stone. If it is down into the stain then you have more of a problem. I would start looking at those different color scratch hiding products.

Ken

[Hotlanta]

Thanks

Thanks Ken,

The scratches are pretty much right at the surface and not deep at all. There are just a few deep ones but I don't mind them, they actually add some character. I did test out a small area with 200 grit but that was way too coarse. I didn't think about using 1200 grit.

Also, I actually just tried some tung oil on the steel wool and that seemed to work pretty well too. I will try the 1200 grit and wet sand it. Is there any chance of making it worse? I suppose I should go real light on the sandpaper too?

Thanks again,

Phil

[cabinetman]

You might want to make sure the top is a wood top. There are so many synthetic finishes that look and feel like wood. If the piece is wood, to eliminate the scratches would mean to level the surface to the lowest point in the scratch. This sounds a little technical, but it isn't. To make the scratch disappear, there can't be a line of any sort within a smooth area, or it will be visible until the scratch is filled up or leveled off to the surrounding area. In wet sanding with 1200, trying not to get to the color will be difficult. Be prepared to touch up or restain the top. That's not such a bad idea.

At the other end of the scale would be to just use a stripper on the top (I like Citristrip), dry sand down the top with 320, and restain. Then you could just topcoat it with polyurethane, either waterbase, or oilbase.

If the top is a veneer, be careful not to sand through.



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