Help! I'm slowly ruining my teak MCM table  

@kingbloodstone,

This short video shows the basic steps of a professional repair (though I would make an irregularly-shaped patch rather than one with straight edges to better disguise it). If you're good with detailed work like this then you can likely make a presentable job of it yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff12YsoYYVw

An alternative would be to fill the void with hardening putty or hot lacquer and then inpaint or "grain paint" the filled area to match. I'd prefer the former wood veneer patch method, though, when skillfully done, painted patches can be nearly invisible. They do, however, typically require a protective finish or varnish on top which might not be the look you want on a vintage Danish teak piece.

Otherwise, most any experienced furniture restorer could do it for you, possibly even on-site. Veneer repairs like this are their bread and butter. Household moving companies can often refer you to someone local.

Edit: Upon second look at your fuzzy photo, it appears that your table does already have some sort of film finish on it and may be of some teak look-alike veneer so the fill/paint/finish option might be best, especially if the table is new and not vintage.

Thank you for the reply and suggestions @tktoo2. I don't think it has a finish (I can provide some other photos) and it's vintage.

I seriously doubt I'll take your first suggestion and repair the veneer. It will be way easier for me to fill it.

I called the store where I bought it and they suggested using teak oil on the chips, then 0000 steel wool, and to keep the whole table protected using orange oil.

Here's another picture 

@kingbloodstone,

It would help if your photos were clearer and included an item (like a ruler, coin, or a banana) to provide a reference for scale, but your second photo seems to show a chip in the finish and not missing veneer. If that is the case, and the damage is recurring, then refinishing might be your best option. More photos (including one of the entire table) might better illustrate the problem, too.

Really, without seeing the damage in person, I cannot recommend a course of treatment at this point. Using "orange oil" as a protective treatment is something I would not recommend, either.

@tktoo2 Thanks again for your comments. I can't seem to figure out how to add more than one photo in a single post.

At any rate, here are some of what you requested. I think you're right, it's not chips in veneer. It does seem to be finished teak. Should the finish be chipping this easily? How can I strengthen it and keep it protected? Why not orange oil?

The whole table

This was the biggest chip, where you can see some of the under-grain that matches the finish. 

This is the same chip in the previous post above, with a dime. This weekend I bought a Minwax Blend-Fil touch-up pencil and filled it in. To be honest, this will probably be the extent of my repair since it helps a lot, cosmetically.

I'm still hoping I can do something preventative....I'm open to suggestions.

Muchas gracias!

@kingbloodstone,

Much better photo!

You've got a sprayed, film-forming finish on top of an improperly-prepared and/or incompatible surface. Unfortunately, some dealers of vintage furniture are guilty of making inappropriate, slapdash repairs like this to maximize profit. These tables almost always had oil finishes originally. Stripping and refinishing are your only realistic options to prevent further recurrence of this type of failure, I'm sorry to report.

Nice-looking table, btw, and certainly teak. Worth the effort/expense of having a proper job done, imo.

Edit: Oh, almost forgot.  Citrus oils are mainly a solvent, which, depending on concentration, can make mild or strong cleaning agents as they tend to dissolve grime, etc. Strong concentrations can even remove paint or other finishes (as I've discovered accidentally). Household cleaning product manufacturers often add them as a fragrance to mask the other nasty bullshit ingredients they don't want you to know about. Instead, use a good paste wax to help protect surfaces on good wooden furniture.

Thanks for the help! I'll try & maintain its current condition, but if it gets too bad, I'll take your advice & strip/restain it.

@kingbloodstone I guess the finish comes off because the teak itself is oily. The good news is: Once it’s stripped and (lightly) sanded, it only needs a couple coats of teak oil and that’s it. Finishing a Danish piece of teak furniture is pretty easy to do. 

@herringbone, When film finishes fail and lift off in small circular spots, like in the photos above, it sometimes indicates localized contamination of the underlying surface by drips of some kind of incompatible oily or waxy liquid (non-drying oils/candle wax). It's possible that the finish on the OP's table will remain otherwise intact, though chipping like this often doesn't bode well for long-term integrity.

It does appear that this finish is somewhat toned, possibly to help even out color difference between the main sections of the top and the less-often-exposed butterfly leaf.

What I find most objectionable is the inappropriate use of a film finish on teak combined with the poor quality of its application in this case. If, for some reason, you do decide put a film finish on teak, at least do a decent job of it. Really, have a look at the "orange-peel" surface on that spray job. That's just shoddy workmanship.