Re: Crayon Repair -- where to purchase

[sunnyp7]

Hello All,

I have not been on the forum for a long while because I was in the process of writing and defending my doctoral dissertation. Now that I have convocated I can return to the process of appointing my home. My question is the following: Does anyone know where I may purchase wood crayons for furniture touch ups? I had a cabinet maker come and touch up my Louis XIV torchieres and he used some type of crayons made by Dynamic. He promised to order a box for me to continue repairing other minor imperfections on my other antiques for about $50.00. However, the order never seems to materialize and I feel that paying $150.00 for someone to spend 5 minutes touching up a piece of furniture is exorbitant especially where there were only 3 minor areas of imperfection. Hope someone knows what these tools are actually called and where to order them? The tools looked like brown crayons of varying shades.

Many Thanks,
Dr. Sunnyp7

[vintrest]

Congratulations on passing your doctoral dissertation. Since I'm an old furniture/antiques restorer, I've used the aforementioned touch up sticks (crayons) from time to time. They are not permanent nor are they very effective on larger gouges and scratches. The gold standard in touch up products is the use of burned-in colored shellac sticks. The disadvantage is you have to be quite experienced in burn-in work (which involves the use of a pre-heated burn in knife and melted shellac) or you'll do more damage than good. For scratch and minor gouge touch up, I would recommend the marker-felt tip pens you can buy at most local home improvement stores. If you are convinced the crayon type sticks work best in your situation, here's a retailer for Mohawk blend-all sticks (professional grade): http://www.shopwoodrepairproducts.com/blendalstick.aspx

Mohawk and Star are the two pillars of the furniture touch up and refinishing industry (and have been since the 1920's) They are both part of RPM Industries. The solvent based (re)finishing products segment has been in steep decline since the EPA classified lacquers and associated solvents as HAPS (Hazardous Air Product Standards) non-compliant. Most furniture factories have gone to 100% solids (no solvents) and other EPA approved work-arounds to remain compliant. Others have simply moved their factories south of the border where air standards are more lax. Sorry to digress... Good luck with your project and please feel free to follow up.
John S.