Remove scratches from wood trim with sandpaper.
Wood trim around doors, windows and staircases can take a real beating. It gets scuffed up from shoes, fingernails, pets and objects carried in your hands. Small scratches can be disguised with stain markers or even buffed out. With deeper scratches, you need to sand down to the wood itself or sand the scratch completely out of the wood. Whatever level of damage your trim might have, it can be fixed with some products you can pick up at your local home improvement store.
Instructions
Deep Scratches
1. Tear the sandpaper in half, and then fold the sandpaper once. Press your fingers into the sandpaper, forcing it down into the profile of the trim, and begin sanding with the grain. Sand over the scratch until you have reached the bare wood. If the scratch is less than 1/16 inch deep, continue sanding until the scratch is gone.
2. Fill any scratch that is more than 1/16 inch deep with wood putty by forcing the putty into the crack with a putty knife. Let the putty dry for one hour.
3. Sand over the putty with the same piece of sandpaper that you have already formed into the profile. Sand the molding until the putty is flush with the wood.
4. Dip a soft cloth into stain and liberally apply it to the sanded area. Using a small paintbrush, artistically paint grain lines onto the putty.
5. Let the stain dry for one hour and then lightly spray the sanded area with lacquer.
Light Scratches
6. Gently rub over the surface of the scratch with fine steel wool.
7. Using a stain marker that matches the existing stain, draw along the scratch, and then immediately wipe the stain off with a soft cloth.
8. Examine the scratch. If you can still see it, use a putty stick in a matching color to rub over the scratch, letting the crayon-like putty fill the crack. Wipe off any residual putty with a soft cloth.
9. Spray the trim with furniture polish and buff to a satin finish with a soft cloth.
Tags: soft cloth, with soft, with soft cloth, inch deep, into profile