Ding repair, cedar top

[Craig Bumgarner]

I'm sprucing up a relatively new guitar to take to a festival and noticed a dent in the top. As the finish is otherwise in very good condition, I would like to fix the dent. Maybe dent is not right word, but specifically looks like a sharp corner hit it, about 1mm in diameter and 0.5mm deep. It broke through the finish which is blonde FP, no stain. I know I only get one chance to fill this and make it look invisible. I picture drop filling it and then leveling with fine papers and polishing it out. But what to fill with? Anyone have a suggestion?

- Shellac? I have the same shellac used to finish the top handy.

- CA glue? In the past, when I have used CA, I seem to remember the result is considerably darker the surrounding wood.

- Clear lacquer stick?

Suggestions appreciated. Thanks,

[Bob Gramann]

Have you considered steaming it out and then repairing the French polish?

[Craig Bumgarner]

Have you considered steaming it out and then repairing the French polish?

The fibers are broken and I figured it would probably not swell back. Thoughts?

[Chuck Tweedy]

Being a "relatively new" guitar and not a brand-spanking new guitar ...
I'd just leave it.

On a cedar top, that repair is going to be very difficult to make invisible.
If you fill it, the ding will (most likely) get darker
If you disturb the oxidized surface of the cedar, the surrounding wood will get lighter
If you try to steam it out, it might become a really horrible combination of both darker and lighter

[Steve Senseney]

Start by steaming. Of course if you are paranoid (and you should be) test on scrap.

It should raise easily. Let it dry for a few hours, patch up you FP and you are finished overnight.

[Alan Carruth]

The key with swelling out dents with water or steam is to do it as soon as possible. The longer the ding sits, the more it gets used to being dinged.

Broken fibers will always show, but the only way to tell if they're really broken is to try steaming it out. I've had the best luck with wetting the area, and hitting it with a heat gun after it's had a chance to absorb some moisture. Sometimes you have to do it twice, or more.

Alan Carruth / Luthier

[Chuck Tweedy]

And this is a top that is already finished with shellac. It is very easy to damage shellac with heat - so be careful!

[Steve Senseney]

But if the shellac is damaged, it can easily be repaired with pumice and new shellac.

I don't know if it would repair if you tried to spray the shellac.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Yes, sprayed shellac, very funny. Thanks for that.

I'm jus' sayin' that if I were preparing to steam out a dent in finished cedar top, I'm going to be prepared to refinish the whole plate.
The steam will puff out the early-wood, and the heat may blister/boil/bubble the finish.
Since it is cedar, and it ain't born yesterday, then the surface under that finish is NOT the same color when it was fresh cut. So, when you sand out that puffed early-wood, and that blistered shellac, then there will be a conspicuous light-wood blemish there.

But hey, go for it.

[Clay Schaeffer]

Sometimes you can raise dents using a drop of water rather than steam. This seems to affect the finish less.

[Michael Lewis]

I'm with chuck on this. It is so much easier to make the really small dent repair appear much larger.