Scratch on wooden reel

[Mark]

I have a Slater latch wooden reel with a similar scratch mark as in the picture below.

I am going to sand and varnish the reel but if the scratch looks a little too deep to completely sand out what would be best to use to fill the scratch mark before varnishing.

Reel.jpg

[Wallys-Cast]

Mark, I think you would have to mount the spool in a lathe and fully refinish it to get that out. Otherwise it is probably best left alone and just varnished a few times, lightly rubbed down and varnished again or you will end up with a lighter area where you have rubbed it down.
If you do want it refinishing on the lathe just send it over and I'll do it for you.

Wal.

[Harry H]

You can get products for scratch repairs on furniture and then finish with a few layers of wax polish. Probably won't make it disappear completely but we all have battle scars.

[Paul D]

Wal's right Mark, it's like a scratch on your car, you "mask" it but it will always be there. You can get wax sticks for use on wooden flooring and furniture but there only ever temporary in my experience. Let Wal give it a skim on his lathe.

[Mark]

Thanks for the advice chaps.

[Match Aerial]

A scratch like that is difficult to remove completely as wal said the reel would need to be rubbed down completely removing the old finish and a small amount of the wood.
The difficult part is replacing the patina.
Personally I would leave as it is

[Albert47]

Leave it as it is.The scratch is part of it's history.

[Evert van der Plas]

You can try to collect the dust after sanding the reel and use that to make a repair on the scratch just mixed it up with a varnish to make a pasta from the dust that you can use to to fill up the scratch