Touchup Services

Here is the candidate for our procedure. The table has a large cigarette burn in the foreground half of the top, and also has several other large chips in the finish. A closeup view of this cigarette burn is pictured on the previous page both before and after the repair. Here, I'll show you how we do it.
The method of repair I am about to describe is usually referred to as a "Burn-in" repair. It may also be referred to as "hot stick", or "hot lacquer". At the top is an assortment of different colored burn-in sticks. This is a hardened lacquer resin material which can be melted into the damaged area. It is manipulated and then leveled off flush with the surface using the special knife tool pictured below the stick assortment. The knife must be warmed to a constant high temperature in order to melt the resin sticks just enough so they can be worked and leveled. I use a special small electric heating oven designed for this purpose.
A good deal of the skill in making a good repair is to closely match the color of the repair material to the finish on the item being repaired. This often involves mixing different colored sticks together.I use a piece of glass as a mixing palate to combine the different colors I determine are needed, using the heated knife. When I am satisfied with the color of the material on the glass, I use the hot knife again to transfer the material into the area to be repaired.
Next, I will level the repair material, again using the heated knife. A thick lubricant material is smeared on the finish around the area to be worked on to protect the existing finish from being damaged by the hot knife.
There is system of steps followed to level the material gradually to the point it is flush with the surface of the existing finish. More lubricant is applied when needed.
The final step in leveling the repair material is done using very fine sandpapers (not pictured). Then, a very light spray of clear finish material is applied to the repair area. At this point if further color adjustment is needed, I will use a special colored powder which is mixed in with a liquid finish material. This is used to adjust the color of the repair if needed, and is also the method used to simulate wood grain lines if this is needed.
When I am fully satisfied with the repair, a few more light coats of finish material are sprayed over the repair.
In this picture you see the finished repair, after it has been sealed. The color and graining has been well matched, and it is properly leveled and sealed. The final challenge is to blend in the "sheen" of the repair to the surrounding finish. Actually, this is a topic unto itself. In short though, there are a few different routines used to accomplish this, and it was necessary in this case to do a polishing routine over the entire table surface. In the case of this table, the customer desired a satin sheen. The whole table top was hand sanded with very fine wet-sandpaper, and then Ultra fine steel wool dipped in a special rubbing wax was used to achieve the final effect.
A closeup of the repair after polishing.
The finished table. Several other areas were repaired in the same fashion as was used to fix the cigarette burn.

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