A friend of mine called me in a panic after her puppy chewed a few spots on her stair treads. She was dreading having to spend a lot of money getting them repaired or replaced.

I was nervous about matching the builder custom stain but promised I'd take a look and see if I could fix it for her.

After seeing it in person, the corner had been gnawed off and there several teeth marks needing to be filled. 

One of the products I use in furniture projects is Fiddes & Son Supreme Wax Polish.  It comes is a variety of colors but my favorite is Rugger Brown.  Since I wasn't sure if I could truly match the original stain if I sanded the area, I decided to see if the Rugger Brown wax would fill the holes instead. 

Using a cloth, I rubbed some of the wax into the holes and kept smoothing it out layer by layer. And like a miracle from HEAVEN, the wax filled in the holes and I was able to build up the corner again by just repeating the process a few times.

Compared to repairing the corner, this area was a cinch to fix.  I simply rubbed a small amount over the chewed area and wiped away the excess. 

Fortunately, the grain of the wood allows for slight imperfections without being noticing as much.  

The beauty of using tinted wax is it will harden and cure over 30 days and will be sturdy and durable long-term.  

Repairing these gauges with Fiddes & Son wax was super easy and required hardly any effort or mess! It's definitely worth a try on projects that can't be sanded and refinished at the time.

If you've never tried repairing scratches or gouges with tinted wax, I hope you'll pin and save this trick for later!