Official Luthiers Forum!

For all of you that work with cedar - How do you get the dents out. I know it is best not to dent in the first place, but I swear if you look at it wrong, it dents.

I am looking at my wife's clothes iron. I'll have to wait until she leaves the house.....

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Steve, I used a woodburning pen over a damp cloth on my sitka. Worked great.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Soldering iron, but these days an old clothes iron that my mother threw out because the steam setting was busted. Bit of wet paper towel, and I'm in business. Doesn't to anything weird to the iron, either.

Steve,
My first 2 guitars were cedar and both have big dents in the top, but the finish(lacquer) covers them, and you can't even see it. However, the first thing I did was take a paper towel and dip in distilled water(so you don't get water stains), then I held just a small wet tip over the dent and then put the tip of my wife's iron in the wet paper towel. Do this for about 10 secs, and remove to make sure it isn't burning, then do again and again until you see some improvement. Good luck!
Tracy

Thanks guys!

My wife's iron and distilled water did the trick.

I'm thinking this would work on any wood. Have you guys used it on sitka, walnut, koa, rosewood etc?

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

It's the moisture swelling the wood fiber that fixes the dent. The heat speeds it up, but if no heat is available just put a drop of water in the dent and wait. This generally works for most wood dents unless the fiber is actually cut or fractured inside the dent which can happen. The dent will heel, but will leave a scar in that case.

Thanks, I need to work on a dent in an Adirondack top already assembled, will give this a try. Seems neither of my sons will own up to making this dent! I know I didn't do it........