Getting rid of hairs/finish flaws

[Tomatonator]

Hi forumites,
I received a non-Warmoth item that has a few flaws in the finish that look like hairs or small strands of something. I'm wondering how to get rid of them. Do I go at it with a sanding block and 800 grit or finer?

I'd like to keep the colour as is but if it comes down to it I could sand it to wood and refinish with Tru oil and dye myself if I take out the existing colour. Preferably I could scuff it down perhaps all over and then just lightly recoat it with Tru oil to bring back sheen minus flaws. 2 flaws visible in attachment.

Thanks

 

[Cagey]

If it was me, I think I'd leave them as is. That kind of thing has a strong tendency to become a tar baby - the more you touch it, the more trouble you're in. I think I'm still seeing a lotta swirl in the rest of the finish, which means almost anything you do to improve the flawed area is going to stand out more than the flaws do now.

Uh oh. I made a clean spot. Guess we'll have to do the whole thing.​

 

[Tomatonator]

Thanks for your input. I think it's more the nature of the phone camera photo since I don't really see swirls in front of me. Even so I wouldn't mind sanding the whole top surface if it's a valid way to get rid of the raised flaws.

I'd like to keep the colour as much as possible which I guess is dye in the wood under the finish but overall the value of the part to me is the wood which is nice and the construction which seems fine too so I could even lose the colour and put another down or something.

 

[Cagey]

Hmm... Well, the wood looks like Camphor Burl, which is that color naturally with just a clear finish, so I don't know how much you have to worry about losing color. I don't think that's stained.

If you go at it with the thought in mind that you may end up having to strip the whole top, I suppose it's worth trying a spot repair. If it was me, I think I'd mask around the flaws so as to leave the rest of the finish untouched, then start with a 320 grit to level the thing. Once they're down, increase 200 grit at a time up to around 2000 grit to get it pretty close to polished again, then go at it with some medium then fine rubbing compound. Remove the masking and buff the whole area, then some swirl remover, then polish, and see where you're at. If it's acceptable, then life is good. If not, regroup.

 

[Tomatonator]

Thanks... The other side is brown though so it's definitely coloured. Not sure how that affects the determination of species which was just described as "bird's eye" wood. I agree it looks like burl and the main thing is I like it Always nice to know though. I think i will see what I can do with sandpaper over the weekend.

 

[Tomatonator]

Well I'm glad I took action on the flaws - I started at 800 grit and went up to 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000 and now using Mequiar's ScratchX 2.0 and it's coming up a treat. Way better than if I left those annoying fluff/dust bunnies + getting a free workout I'll add it to my build thread when I do my next update.

 

[Cagey]

Excellent! I'm glad that's working out for you.