Best finish to conceal dining table glue marks

[Gareth Robinson]

I’m a newbie here and hope someone can help.

I inherited this lovely Danish tiled dining table from an uncle and thought it was solid wood, but after sanding back to refinish it, discovered it was veneered chipboard. Gulp.

The varnish remover I used made the glue joins really obvious (the wiggly line in the photo)

Any suggestions on how to make it as invisible as possible when I refinish it? If I sand too much it will go through the veneer to the chipboard.

I have both tinted varnish and tinted Osmo Polyx-oil, but not sure which to use. I don’t really want to have to try one and find out it doesn’t work, only to have to re-strip and re-sand making it all worse.

Any help gratefully received!

 

[mwinfrance]

Shallow cut the zig-zag "join" out completely ( as a straight sided "slot" ) full length and then insert full length ( glue and clamp down under a thick flat bord or a peice of thick MDF with a plank on top of it ) a piece of "inlay" wood the same colour as the pale part of the tiles.Thus giving you two inserts one each side of the tiles in the middle.
You'll never disguise the zig-zag veneer joins with any "finish".

 

[niall Y]

That looks very much like a stitch mark. Could be removed with a card scraper, or scraper plane.. You should be able to take quite a few thin shavings off, long before you reach the chipboard , It is a lot more predictable than sanding, when working veneered board.
If it is teak, then maybe stick to a Danish oil type of finish. It can be a bit too oily/waxy for other things

 

[Gareth Robinson]

Shallow cut the zig-zag "join" out completely ( as a straight sided "slot" ) full length and then insert full length ( glue and clamp down under a thick flat bord or a peice of thick MDF with a plank on top of it ) a piece of "inlay" wood the same colour as the pale part of the tiles.Thus giving you two inserts one each side of the tiles in the middle.
You'll never disguise the zig-zag veneer joins with any "finish".

Thanks for the thought, that feels way beyond my skill set tho!

 

[Gareth Robinson]

That looks very much like a stich mark. Could be removed with a card scraper, or scraper plane.. You should be able to take quite a few thin shavings off, long before you reach the chipboard , It is a lot more predictable than sanding, when working veneered board.
If it is teak, then maybe stick to a Danish oil type of finish. It can be a bit too oily/waxy for other things

Thanks for the suggestions. I thought it was teak but seeing the chipboard below the top surface when oversanding means I’m not sure of anything now!