Merit Walnut Six — Burn-In Stick Set
Ships from Waynesboro, Virginia.
Six full-size Merit burn-in sticks · six colors · the walnut range
The Walnut Six is a set of six full-size Merit burn-in sticks for repairing chips, gouges and worn edges in walnut — American black walnut, the lighter Circassian and European figures, and the dark Mediterranean tones. It is the box for anyone who works on mid-century casework, gunstocks, dining tables and the walnut-veneered pieces that come through every repair shop.
Walnut shifts as it ages — fresh wood is purple-brown, old wood warms toward honey — so this set carries both ends: a light brown and Circassian walnut for the faded pieces, Mediterranean walnut for the deep ones, and two semi-transparents, walnut and brown mahogany, for fills where the figure has to read through. The amber ultra translucent is the blender; a thin pass over a leveled repair ties it into the finish around it. Original factory stock, hand-poured and stamp-embossed, every stick cast one at a time.
What's in the set
Listed light to dark:
- #59 — Light Brown
- #40 — Circassian Walnut
- #14 — Amber Ultra Translucent
- #83 — Mediterranean Walnut
- #48 — Walnut Semi-Transparent
- #47 — Brown Mahogany Semi-Transparent
What a burn-in stick does
A burn-in stick fills chips, gouges, and worn edges with hard natural resin that takes a finish like the wood around it. Melt a little off the stick with a heated knife, flow it into the damage, level it, and finish over it — the same repair the trade has been doing this way for generations.
Why a range
A burn-in has to disappear into the finish around it, and color is what gives it away. The usual method is to pick the stick closest to the surrounding wood — often deliberately a shade lighter, since it is easier to bring color up over a level fill than to take it back out — then work the tone and grain on top once it sits flush.
On walnut the usual mistake is going too dark and too cold; the wood has more red and gold in it than it looks from across the shop. Having the lighter sticks and the see-through sticks in the same box is what lets you sneak up on the match.
Expect a little surface character — pour marks, the odd bubble, an embossed number that stamped a hair off-center. They melt exactly the same.
See this set in the Merit color line →
Where the burn-in stick comes from: Penny a Stick: a brief history of burn-in sticks. More from the line: the Merit hub. Questions: orders@shellac.net.
