Repair small scatches in top of mandolin

[DENNY7P]

I have a mandolin with some small scatches on the top it's not into the wood,just into the
Behlen Nitrocellulose Stringed Instrument Lacquer can i just fill the scatches and smooth out with fine sand paper and polish out

[sunburst]

If you know how...

[DENNY7P]

Do you have some pointers, or can you use lacquer sticks

[Folkmusician.com]

OK... There is a lot of potential to make things worse here. For the most part, the theory is very simple. In practice, all sorts of things can cause less than ideal results. In other words, don't practice on a nice instrument.

John is trying to do you a favor by not telling you.

You need to melt the new finish into the old with some Cellosolve. If you do get them filled in, wait a month or more before leveling it.

[Bill Snyder]

Don't do it, you'll be sorry if you do.

[sunburst]

I wouldn't be able to do it with shellac sticks (what I'm familiar with), maybe someone could.
I haven't seen the scratches, but most likely I would use an artists brush with soft bristles and a pointed tip, put some lacquer in an airbrush bottle and leave the lid loose so that it evaporates down a little and gets thicker, then carefully brush lacquer right in the scratches. Put on as many coats as it takes to stand proud of the surface when dry and let the lacquer cure for at least a week. After cure, I'd scrape the beads of lacquer almost level with the surface with an Xacto blade, then sand level. Sanding through the grits of Micro Mesh might get you to the same gloss as the existing surface, but if not rubbing with MaGuiars #7 or other similar polish will. I'd probably start sanding with about 400 grit.

As mentioned, it is much easier to make it look worse than it is to make it look better, and without a fair amount of experience the ease differential is less in your favor.

[Dale Ludewig]

I completely agree with John. I've been using lacquer/shellac sticks for about 35 years and I wouldn't go near a mandolin or any other gloss finished piece of wood with one. You need a 'hot knife' and there is virtually no way to get one hot enough to melt the lacquer stick without damaging the finish. My bet is that it will be a slippery slope and before you know it, it will be a real mess. Besides, even if you were to get it perfect now, it will get scratched later.

[Big Joe]

If the scratches are that thin you may be able to just buff it out and remove a good share of them. Of course, I have not seen it nor do I know how thick the finish is. The finish you have on it is a good lacquer and can buff out nicely. That being said though, anything you do will use abrasives to remove the scratches. If the nitro is not thick enough you can go right through the finish and then you will have a mess. Depending upon how much finish is over the color you could even have a worse mess if you blow through part of the color as well. You may learn to love the scratches compared to what you may otherwise have.

My wife's family lives in Geneseo. If I were going to be there anytime soon I would be happy to look it over for you and see what could be done. Have a Great Day!

[sgarrity]

They get scratches from playing. Why do you want to repair them?

[DENNY7P]

I took meguiar's scratch x 2.0 fine scratch and blemish remover and polished out the scratches out,the reason that i wanted to get the scratches out because it's a new mandolin,and i didn't want to start out with the big scratch,,it stood out ,when every i would show somebody,first thing they would notice!THANK FOR EVERYBODYS HELP!