Removing small dents

Hello Guys,

i have a Ukulele that is overall in good condition, but has some annoying marks on the back.

I tried to take a picture but its impossible to make it visible on a photo. (maybe because of the gloss finish).

There are a few small scrachtes, but they are not the problem. The back is full of very small little dots, that are a bit deeper than the rest of the laquer. You just see them in the right light/angle, but you can see them very clearly then.

I wonder where are they coming from and how i can get rid of them?

I would try to sand, but i think this wouldnt remove them, just change the appearance. I also made the experience that the laquer gets more bright and a little bit "milky" when i tried to sand other ukes.

Is the back made of an open grained wood? Are you talking about where the lacquer has sunk into the grain? A picture would help.

Something I've seen many times online is using a damp cloth and an iron. I've never tried it, but I'm tempted to dent some random wood in the garage and give it a try. Of course, I'll have to locate the iron.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/arti... the damp washcloth on,your wash cloth is dry.

Jerry, this method does work to some extent, but if there is a finish on the instrument it may not work.

surfink said:

Jerry, this method does work to some extent, but if there is a finish on the instrument it may not work.

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Yes, that's definitely a concern. I'm leaving the few dents that I have in mine.

I guess steaming wouldnt help, since the dents are not in the wood but in the laquer.


Sunken Laquer is a good idea, that could be. Never tought about that. The Top is Spruce and has zero dents.


You cant see the dents in my picture, but the wood itself.




The wood is java rosewood.

Personally if that was mine I would live with it. Think of it as giving the instrument character. What I think I'm seeing (hard to tell) is some contraction and shrinkage of the lacquer over time or perhaps there was an incomplete pore fill along some of the grain lines prior to to applying the finish or a little of both. Anyway, to get rid of them would probably require a refinish which costs $$$.

Looks like shrinkage to me, many pore filling techniques do shrink over time. You either live with it or refinish the instrument. Helps if you know what the finish is to start with. This is one advantage of French polish - very easy to refinish when required. Personally I don't mind having grain visible. It's a ukulele made of wood. Why everyone tries their hardest to make it look like plastic I will never understand.

Red Cliff said:

It's a ukulele made of wood. Why everyone tries their hardest to make it look like plastic I will never understand.

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Guilty as charged! It seems that people that buy my instruments want a shiny, smooth finish. Shiny sells and I do enjoy getting that smooooth finish. But I agree, sometimes I think we take the humble ukulele, made of wood and try to make little shiny guitars. A tasteful mat finish with a good quality tung oil looks great, but bigger bucks are in the shiny. A little sad I agree.

Thank you guys.

I know these "sinkings" are not a big deal, but i like to have my stuff in "perfect" condition. I also like to make some small reapairs myself if possible.

Do you know any "gap fillers" or tricks to refinish my gloss finish?

Joralin said:

Thank you guys.

I know these "sinkings" are not a big deal, but i like to have my stuff in "perfect" condition. I also like to make some small reapairs myself if possible.

Do you know any "gap fillers" or tricks to refinish my gloss finish?

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If the uke builders on this forum haven't offered good ideas, there probably aren't any. : (

Joralin said:

Thank you guys.

I know these "sinkings" are not a big deal, but i like to have my stuff in "perfect" condition.

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Then when you buy another , dont play it, just put it in a glass case and hang it on the wall.

Joralin said:

Do you know any "gap fillers" or tricks to refinish my gloss finish?

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There are no cunning tricks with a high gloss finish!

Anything which just fills the "dents" will refract light differently from the original finish. So you'll see where the dents were, even if you don't see them as dents.

A high gloss finish works by having a uniform film of the same finish across the whole surface. Anything which isn't that won't look like you want.

A suitably skilled luthier could refinish the back and bring it to the high gloss you want, though after a few years that might shrink back too. But it would probably look different from the high gloss on the sides, so you'd better have those done at the same time.

This is one of the reasons why I don't try to achieve a mirror gloss on the ukes I make. There are other reasons, including that I haven't the patience and possibly not the skill to achieve it ...

sequoia said:

Guilty as charged! It seems that people that buy my instruments want a shiny, smooth finish. Shiny sells and I do enjoy getting that smooooth finish. But I agree, sometimes I think we take the humble ukulele, made of wood and try to make little shiny guitars. A tasteful mat finish with a good quality tung oil looks great, but bigger bucks are in the shiny. A little sad I agree.

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Shiny has always been popular, probably ever since man discovered shiny things like gold. Sadly there is always a price to pay in that it makes for a less interesting surface i.e. it's just one homogeneous surface. A new Steinway piano is a pretty impressive object to look at, an incredibly shiny mirror black finish but it can only hold your attention for a few seconds. Visually there just isn't enough happening for the eye and the mind to maintain interest. I decided long ago that I was never going to finish my instruments by taking them through to optical purity, what I term 'polishing the lens'. I did that a couple of times and ended up removing that type of gloss after just a few days. That's when I sought a compromise, gloss but not with the glass hard look. I finish with the french polishing pad done in very deliberate overlapping straight lines. No abrasives. This is enough to put micro lines into the finish, a slightly more friendly looking gloss. The real difficulty (and it is difficult) is getting it to look even all across the back or top plates. Anything that ends up 'patchy' is going to look pretty amateurish. It's not that different to doing a scraper finish on spruce. We all know that it results in ridges. If you ended up with even looking ridges all across the plates it makes for an interesting finish, you also get texture. It's so difficult to get it to look even though. Far easier to just go through the sanding grits.

Okay, seems that it's better to leave it as it is.

Thanks for your answeres and opinions guys.