Covers Light Scratches, but Really Stains Well
Written: Jun 19 '06
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: easy to apply; easy to fix; can't really screw up using it
Cons: alarmingly long-lasting liquidity
The Bottom Line: Useful for so many applications, from the simple scratch cover to overall staining and highlighting.
|
|
|
| davidmanning's Full Review: Old English Scratch Cover for Light and Dark Woods |
Picking up free stuff is a crapshoot, but boy howdy it's a lot of fun. Taking a big shelving unit off a stranger's hands, from a narrow third-floor walkup in the West Village, is even more fun. Now add in that she has cats, and, well, there's a reason she gave it away.
So most of the scratches currently on this piece were likely planned. The shelves came from an upscale store that has a line of old-looking new pieces, with dings and artfully-placed scratches throughout. It's an unidentified hardwood, with some interesting carvings and so forth, and all the construction is dovetails and tongue-and-groove -- no nails. It's a great piece that deserves more love than it's been shown.
We looked at staining it, but hit upon the great idea of highlighting the scratches with the Old English Scratch Cover for dark wood in the closet. Used by-the-book, this stuff hides scratches on dark wood very well - it's performed in that capacity on a couple of occasions here.
That There Bottle
The Scratch Cover comes in a tall, narrow eight-ounce container. Warnings all over the bottle dare small children to drink it, but the childproof cap probably keeps lips from liquid. Plus, it's a little more viscous than your average drinkable fluid, so at the very least this "harmful or fatal if swallowed" poison is harder to choke down.
The instructions explain that the contents cover small nicks and scratches while restoring damaged wood surfaces. It also cautioned me against using this on light-to-medium shades of wood. Joke's on you, Old English!
Application
The plan: highlight the scratches and the woodgrain in this piece, after sanding, while deepening the color. Using a lint-free pad, we applied a small amount of the scratch remover and rubbed it on. The Old English doesn't run, and it remains wet for quite some time; as a matter of fact, there's no prescribed time on the bottle: just "wipe dry... until finish becomes lustrous."
So it's applied to lots of different surfaces. On the cat-scratched areas, it soaks in readily; there's no stain left here, and the scratched areas turn a pleasing darker-brown color. On the main planks comprising front and sides, the staining action acts more like a light wash, highlighting the little nicks and abrasions like the piece is a hundred years old.
The shelves are plywood, and take the scratch cover stain very nicely.
Tick Tock...
At first I waited an hour to let the finish dry before wiping it down. The surface was tacky to the touch, however, this is perfectly normal. Really, it's ready to take a polish in about half an hour, and while it will feel odd, it's stuck fast to the wood and isn't coming off except on a cloth.
Said lint-free cloth is the method to wipe it down before applying a finish, in this case beeswax paste. I wiped down the various parts, taking up a good amount of the dark-brown cover. But the rest had penetrated the wood, so it was a winning situation.
The finished product after the paste was a smooth, rich color. There's no chance of drips if you pay attention, and since it takes possibly forever to dry, you can correct any errors fairly painlessly.
Aroma
I started to think that we only used this stuff because we didn't have any regular stains around. Then it occurred to me that the Old English smells more like furniture polish and less like furniture stain, so that's a plus. Naturally, keeping a window open or, even better, applying the Old English outside is preferred. You should probably be told here to wear a mask, but you're not going to die if you don't.
Any Final Words?
The Old English Scratch Cover does a wonderful job covering scratches -- go figure! -- when you pick the dark for dark woods and light for light. We've covered a few scratches in the dark furniture with this stuff with no problems; it matches up just fine in moderation. There's not much to stay about that; it's dark, it adds color to spots where none remains, and it hides the little things. Deep cuts, well, those are going to show up no matter what. Try to keep the chainsaw safety on next time, sporto.
Is this really that novel an approach to the use of scratch cover? It seemed perfectly normal to me. I can't imagine needing to cover eight ounces of dark wood scratches in my lifetime, as we managed to use a little less than half this bottle to lightly cover about 40 square feet of hardwood and plywood. This bottle cost $4.79, but that was a few years ago; expect something between five and six dollars nowadays.
I like the stuff. It won't make you high, but it does exactly what it's supposed to do. The color is pleasant enough on lighter woods if you're willing to change the color, but obviously there's but two colors to choose from with Old English; if you're pickier, well, get some real stain. It's a fun product to play with, and makes wood look better.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
davidmanning
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Location: New York City
Reviews written: 303
Trusted by: 115 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.