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DAP Blend Sticks…Don’t Bother

by on Apr 7, 2011

Three packages of assorted blend sticks.

First I’d like to say something to the DAP Company. I generally like your products. I really do. Your caulk is great. Your Plastic Wood is outstanding. Your Bend Sticks….not so much. Last week I purchased the ‘For Dark Woods’ set at my local Ace for a pricey $8. (Yeah, I know, a big box store would have had them for half that price.) The package says they’re for use on finished wood and that the individual sticks (4 come in a package) are blend-able for custom coloring, which was the selling point for me. 

Basically, to fill a hole with one of the sticks, you just rub the thing over it until its filled. To make the job easier, DAP suggests holding the stick in your hand to warm it, thereby softening it. That was the first thing that didn’t really work. I would have had to pop it in the microwave to get it soft. Blending? Yeah, that was virtually impossible. As far as how it actually looked on a piece of finished furniture…let’s just say it left a smear around the blemish that needed some serious buffing to get off. I’d have gotten pretty much the same results using a Crayon as I would have using these sticks, and I’d have saved myself 8 bucks.

Ultimately, you’re better off using a suitably matching stain to hide those blemishes (which is what I ended up doing) in your fine furniture rather than DAP Blend Sticks.

3 Comments

  1. Warm them up with a lighter. just use the heat next to the flame and not the flame or you`ll get soot all over it. Thats how all wax sticks work. just dont make them melt, you just need to soften the tip. If soft you should nothave to rub very much a simple wipe should do it. then you just buff with a rag after a few seconds. As for blending together, I have no idea how this could be done aside from melting two colors and then mixing which I feel is more time and effort than I want to spend. I just pick the closest one. 

  2. I agree.  I tried them and I can’t see them being useful in 9 out of 10 cases. It just makes it worse.  A really useless thing in my opinion. I have black furniture and I’m going to try painting it in with a mix of matte/gloss spray paint  sprayed into a container.  Al least that has a chance

  3. they are incredible and virtually invisible when you learn how to handle them.