Ding in Watco Danish Oiled mahogany

[Alexander Higgins]

Nearly finished installing electronics in my Hybrid Steinberger solid mahogany body and noticed I have a nice 1" long (but very shallow) ding that somehow appeared right between the pickups. No idea how or when this happened, as I have been super careful, but there it is. I wanted to weep. Any chance i can steam this out through a newly cured Watco danish Oil finish, or do i just surrender to the inevitable forces of entropy and decay and call it good?

[Gordon Bellerose]

I am not all that familiar with Danish Oil.
Is it something you can drop fill?
Steam and oil generally do not mix.
A picture would be good.

[Steve Senseney]

I am sure steam will raise the dent.

I have no idea what will happen to your finish, or if it can be repaired after steaming.

You might practice on scrap first.

[David King]

To steam this sort of dent out I use the corner of a wet-damp cellulose sponge and the cleaned tip of a soldering iron turned down low (350º) so it won't scorch the wood. I let the steam do the work, I don't put any pressure on the wood. It takes a little while for the steam to saturate the compressed cells under an oil finish. Just keep at it until you can see the wood darken with the moisture. the dent won't come out right away, it usually comes out as the wood dries. It may take several applications. I doubt the oil will be affected but i would probably remove as much of the dried oil on the surface as I could with steel wool (tape off the pickups and vacuum up the steel particles before you steam!) You could also just clean the oil off locally with some acetone on a Q-tip. Again tape off around the dent.

[Alexander Higgins]

David,
Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try on some scrap first and see what happens.