The markers are intensely colored and dry quickly, so you need to be light-handed when applying them and quick-handed when wiping the excess ink away. Just for reference, I used these markers extensively over a sealed white oak floor stained a very dark brown that had numerous scratches from a contractor who had a nail in his boot. (Thanks.) I used the mahogany marker primarily, but layered it over or under the lighter and darker markers to match the variations in color across the scratches. In a nutshell, these markers worked extremely well for the purpose. A very few scratches resisted the ink or just took on too much ink even when using the lightest color. (Be very careful using the cherry marker. It looks very red even dark wood.) Starting small and testing is wise.
Because of their broad point, it's easy to overstain the margins of a narrow scratch. Whenever I didn't remove the ink as fast as I applied it, the ink sealed itself to the wood and looked obvious. So, I learned to start off by testing a small portion of the scratch with the lightest color I thought would work and wiping the ink off immediately with a dry paper towel. I either went back over it with the same marker if the first pass proved to be too light, or shifted to a darker shade. I found that if I layered the colors (dark over light or light over dark), I could handily match most areas of the scratches. I discovered that I could "remove" or lessen the visual impact of ink that had been overdrawn on the margins of scratches simply by redrawing over the area and quickly wiping. Where Where the ink didn't come off entirely, it had the effect of feathering the color and making it look subtle. Again, this was on sealed, dark wood. You'd never have a hope of doing that to unsealed wood. It might work on sealed blond wood, but you'd need to test and have fast hands.
The wax for me was more trouble than it was worth, but I did manage to jam a lighter color than I needed into some of the deeper scratches (that took work) and then applied the lightest marker over that, gradually used darker markers (wiping as I went) to achieve the desired results. Endless combinations there--too many, frankly.
All-in-all, pretty darn good.
This product not only repairs nicks and scratches in wood and laminated products but is excellent for hiding the light exposed edge of veneers. This can dramatically improve the look of inexpensive laminated/veneered shelving, etc. I love these markers!
Some Thoughts --
These are really juicy markers - pretty wet compared to conventional markers. There's a lot of stain in each one so you get good mileage out of each. This really offsets the whole issue of price vs not using all the colors. Also, the covers have a really positive snap fit - you have to push hard to click them closed but that should seal these up and keep them moist for a long time. Double check when you are done.
The stain works best on unfinished/exposed wood (like the bottom of a scratch). Even fairly large unfinished areas take the stain uniformly without obvious striping from adjacent marker strokes. However, finished or non-absorbent surfaces are a little more problematic and are where quick smudging/blending with your thumb to feather the stain comes in.
Veneer Edges --
For dressing the edge of finishing veneers on corners, hold the broad side of the marker at a 45 degree angle to the two corner faces and leaning forward a bit and just swipe the length of the edge lightly. There will be minimum contact to either of the two faces adjacent to the corner and very little if any color feathering required.
Removing Excess Stain --
For hiding surface scratches the idea is to color the scratch but not the surrounding finished surface. This is virtually impossible considering the width of the marker tip, but it's pretty easy to remove the excess stain since it turns out the marker stain is alcohol-soluble. I use Zeiss Lens Cleaning Wipes (available on Amazon). They are soaked in alcohol, are lint-free, and have a relatively hard surface that does not easily deform into scratches/nicks when wiping. They only stay moist for a couple of minutes, but that's workable. So - use the marker to make the color repair, then rub the alcohol wipe lightly over the repaired area to remove the excess surface stain but leave the stain in the scratch which is below the surface. Wipe perpendicular to the scratch (cross-ways not long-ways) so the wipe will tend to skip over the stain in the scratch. Don't press down since that will push the wipe into the damaged area and remove the stain that you want to keep. Done.
Since the wipes remove the stain easily, even botched color matches, etc are easy to clean up for another try. The alcohol wipes work great on laminates but use care on unwaxed wood surfaces since alcohol can remove existing stain.
Anyhow - the photos show a quickie 2 minute repair to a badly scratched laminated desktop using the lens wipe technique. This nasty scratch has been there for years and is now virtually invisible. Amazing results!
This kit has several different colors for touch ups. Comes with markers and little crayons. The best part is you can match anything just by blending the colors together. We have lots of different wood on the house and in the last I have gone to the store and did my best to color match from a photo, come home and it didn’t match. The price of this entire package is the price of two touch up pens from he store so it is definitely the better but. Lastly, this touches up cabinets, laminate, tables, frames, cabinets, bookshelves, flooring...you name it.
Comes with 6 color markers and 5 filler sticks, with a sharpener. The markers are maple, walnut, mahogany, cherry, oak, and black. The filler sticks come in all colors except black. They get the job done. I attached a before and after photos of my coffee table.
Used this on our dining room chairs, laminate flooring and our oak end table. The assortment of colors is the biggest plus for this product. Where needed to help blend in each color I used WD40 on a soft cloth and a very fine steel wool. The color I selected for the wood laminate matched perfectly. The dining chairs and end table needed some blending due to the wood grain. This kit is the best I have ever used. I highly recommend it.