I’m working on fixing a friend’s secretary desk. I’m chiseling out some wood with stripped screw holes so I can epoxy in some new wood and make fresh holes. In doing so, I tore a little chip off the veneer. Unfortunately I didn’t notice so I can’t find the chip. What’s the best way to fix this? I’m guessing wood putty and paint to match the color the best that I can. It’s a small chip and the desk is already pretty beat up, so it doesn’t have to be a perfect fix.
Detail view:
When I was young, I watched an old timer fix deep gouges and chipped veneer with a resin sticks. He melted it in with a wood burning iron and a small spatula to even it out. He had a whole box of different colors. That said, I think now a days they use tubes of colored epoxy to make repairs like that. And that is so small ,some Rockhard putty and stained with a dark brown marking pen might work. I think Woodcraft or Rockler sell the marking pens in different colors for that.
Herb
That gave me some things to Google. Thanks! I think I’m going to try to tint epoxy, which I’m already using to glue the new wood in in any case. That will also do a better job hiding any gaps. Looks like a trip to Woodcraft is in my future. 
I was thinking along the same lines,if you made the epoxy the same or near the same color as the old veneer,the squeeze out might cover/fill that small nick.
Herb
If I took the epoxy route, the fun part for me would be texturing it to match after it dries.
I never would’ve thought of that. For this desk I don’t think it really matters since the texture is a smooth finish, but for some other project…
This mixol dye seemed to be a surprisingly close match on my first attempt. Let’s hope it doesn’t change color too much while drying. It’s probably already good enough that it’s not an eye-sore, which is all that I really need from it. Now I just need to wait for the epoxy to dry. 
