# Can anyone help me



## Zgarrison (Nov 21, 2020)

I have these old wood doors that are damaged does anyone know how I can fix them and retain the original look


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## John Smith_inFL (Jul 4, 2018)

welcome to the forum, Z.
can you provide some history of the doors ?
back to original condition may not be possible without cutting out bad wood
and replacing it with good wood that may not match.
what is your woodworking skill level ??
this project will require much more effort than just removing the varnish and refinishing.
what is the value of the doors ?

.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

What I would do is cut enough off the bottom of the door up to the opposite stile to square the door and glue a piece of wood on to fill what was removed. Then do the same with the stile. Then run the door edgewise through a table saw taking off 1/16" off the face up to the opposite stile and remove the entire face of the stile. Then chisel out by hand what you couldn't get with the saw at the opposite stile so the entire face of the rail is removed. Then make a piece of 1/16" thick piece of pine by resawing it and glue on the face of the rail and stile. Then strip the finish off the door letting the old finish run over the new wood. Then tinker with the new finish on scrap wood. You would probably need a light stain, maybe a fruitwood color and then finish it with amber shellac. It will take a lot of trial and error to come up with the right stain and finish. Every coat of amber shellac you put on will make it more orange. You would just have to find the right stain and the right amount of amber shellac. It's a difficult thing for all of us to do, even experienced professionals. If I was bidding the job I would bid three hours work just matching the color and I've been doing that kind of work for decades.


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## johnep (Apr 12, 2007)

Have you still got the dog?
johnep


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

It might help us to know a little about your background, woodworking experience, and available tools.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

If you brought them to me, I would saw off the damaged wood on the vertical stile and some off the bottom rail. I would glue on matching grain Pine and stain them matching the existing wood OR strip the entire door, restain and top coat. This is not a job for a novice, to do it correctly.
To make them "whole" again the easist solution is to fill and sand the areas, then paint them since the filler will show through just about any stain you try to use.


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## Bob61 (Nov 7, 2020)

We had the same problem caused by our Australian Shepherd, replaced it with a new door. I have only hand tools and couldn't think of a way to fix the old one that would look good short of filling in the damage, sanding, sealing and painting the door.


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