Your upcoming home improvement project involves filling and fixing medium defects. However, you are unsure about which burn in tools you need in order to complete the job. Let us walk you through why Mohawk Consumer Product's Hard Fill Sticks, Battery Operated Burn-In Knife, and Hard Fill Leveling Tool are the perfect trio for the job.  

Initial Repair

Mohawk's Hard Fill Sticks are relatively easy to use compared to the traditional burn sticks that require a burn-in knife for initial leveling and sanding to bring them flush.  Both of these processes have the potential for damage and require skill to apply them properly. Our new Hard Fill Burn In Sticks do not require melting to flow them into the damage area but do not require a burn in knife for leveling or sanding!

A traditional burn in knife can be used to melt and flow the material into the damage area, but our Battery Operated Burn-In Knife can also be used and is much less expensive, portable and fast.  Once the hard wax material is melted and flowed into the void, the material is allowed to cool a few moments and can then be abraded down flush using our new Hard Fill Leveling Tool. This tool is a plastic rasp like block that is abrasive enough to level the filler without scratching your finish.  After this is complete, the filler can be buffed with a soft cloth to further smooth the repair and raise the luster if desired. 

Finishing Options

Hard Fill Sticks do not require top coating and with the proper match, the process is complete. You do have the option of coating over the repair with a touch up coating for a more finished look or to seal additional color steps you may perform over the filler.  More often than not, repairs require a lighter stick to be used to provide the lighter highlights present in your finish and other color products are used to provide the darker tones and grain lines that may be missing in the repair area.  Choosing a color to provide the lighter tones in your finish gives you the platform you need to build a better match.  In some cases, a solid color will do, and a color can be chosen without additional color work or graining.

Mohawk Brush Tip Grainers are an excellent option to applying grain lines or overtones to the Hard Fill repairs as they will stick to the wax material and won't damage the fill. While top coating will help fix the color work over the filler for a more permanent repair, the Brush Tip Grainer material will stay put on many repairs where wear isn't an issue an dtop coating is not desired or possible.  

If you are curious about what this whole process looks like, this YouTube video will explain everything you need to know. Designer Trapped in a Lawyer's Body also wrote a great post where she used hard fill to help refinish a dining room table! You can find that here. 

Reach out to our Facebook or Twitter with any questions or concerns - Happy fixing!