Dent in walnut

[kevin nee]

I have a dent in a piece of walnut. It is about 1/4 by 1/8 deep. Something must have bumped into it. Any suggestions on how to raise it?
Thanks in advance, Kevin

[Derek Cohen]

Wet it, then steam it out with an iron.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/DentRemoval.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[glenn bradley]

Steal the clothes iron out of the house. Dampen a piece of paper towel, lay it over the dent and steam-iron it. As long as the fibers are not torn it should restore completely.

[Mel Fulks]

Yep. But if your water has a lot of iron in it the wood will blacken. Found that out in a stay at Gramma’s house.

[Charles Taylor]

I need to do this often enough that I've got my own clothes iron in the workshop. I also keep distilled water on hand for avoiding any mineral/tannin reactions as Mel mentions when steaming out dents, raising grain, or mixing up dye.

[Prashun Patel]

Know your finish first. Beware that your steam does not cause a white spot or soften the finish and compromise the sheen.

[Ralph Okonieski]

Recently, I accidentally damaged a corner of a QSWO drawer. I was aware of the iron approach, but because it was a corner, that was impractical. To fix it, wet paper towels were placed on just the corner over about a two day period of time. The towels were not dripping wet but more than simply damp. They were re-dampened several times. The corner did return to very near normal. Can not say it was perfectly returned, but close enough that it was no longer noticeable.

I see no reason that a wet paper towel covering just the dent would not work as it did for QSWO. I forgot to mention above, that the towels were covered with blue tape to hold it over the corner. The tape helps to retain the moisture some so the towel does not dry so quickly.

[Richard Coers]

The steam suggestions will only work for shallow dents with no broken fibers. If the fibers are broken they will continue to be broken and show as such when you swell the fibers around it. It will not disappear. At 1/8" deep, I imagine there are some broken fibers.

[Lee Schierer]

What I do is put a drop or two of distilled water right into the dent. Let it set for a few hours and repeat if needed. I've never really had the need for steam.