what is a good product to fill small surface cracks when refinishing wood furniture?

When I did trade school here in Australia, I do recall one of the teachers saying something about the use of Beeswax as a filler for the repair of scratches, cracks and small holes in days gone by (old school repair). So I'm guess a product like this one, is what you might need.

http://www.briwax.co.uk/products/waxsticks.html

If you're wanting to finish it in a natural color of the wood you could try the soft color putty available and try to match it to the wood color, but be sure that it's not a wax of some sort or the clear finish you apply will not adhere to it. You can try filling in the cracks with the clear finish you'll be using, use a small artist brush to fill in the cracks, it may take several applications to get them filled in well. I've found that for a natural wood look a clear filler in cracks looks the best when finished.

If you're going to stain it then the typical wood fillers don't stain to match the wood well and usually end up much darker in color & looking like streaks or very dark grain. Bees wax may not stain at all either but I've never used it so I don't know. If the cracks are small I usually leave the wood dust in them from the sanding, the dust fills the cracks but it too doesn't stain the exact color and may be a bit darker like the wood fillers do. Color putty pencils usually works well and is applied after the clear finish is applied and it's all good and dry. It's a bit harder to work with than the soft color putty in a jar but that has it's advantages too. Fill the cracks well then use a soft clean cloth to rub off the excess well and it'll leave a good smooth fill & the soft cloth will polish the putty with some shine too.

If you want to preserve the general aspect of your furniture and, at the same time, you want to do it by yourself, then wax is the only reasonable solution. Not only it will diminish the cracks, but it will be easy to finish and polish. If, on the other side, some of your cracks are big, then you should avoid wax. On the long run, it would look like a stain and you don't want that to happen.

LloydBurrell

Is this veneer?

If you paint wood glue in the cracks with an artist brush you may get desirable results. Or wet down the wood putty to a paste and paint that on.

Wood filler is what to use. Some are just thicker than others. You can thin it out with some water.

i gave the me guy a thumbs up, however in the puddy section at the hardware store there is one kind of puddy that is so light that when you compare the weight of it to the rest you'd swear it was empty. also there is a product that comes in a box called 'fixall' it's a powder that you add water to to get the consistency you need, of course these will except stain but they won't be the same color of the wood if you're going to stain it. painting will hide it

try using potty