Thread: Open grained woods

Originally Posted by icedog

There are products specifically designed to seal wood prior to finishing. They are called sanding sealers. Here's one that looks pretty good: Buy SealCoat Universal Sanding Sealer, 1 Quart, SealCoat Universal Sanding

That is shellac with a retarder.


Sealers don't work so well on porous woods like oak, mahogany and walnut. You really need to fill with a filler or an oil slurry as was mentioned.

Originally Posted by floppyshoes

That is shellac with a retarder.


Sealers don't work so well on porous woods like oak, mahogany and walnut. You really need to fill with a filler or an oil slurry as was mentioned.

That's interesting Dan, in the product description it says exactly the opposite:
It seals all types of wood including oak, maple, chestnut, mahogany, walnut, birch, poplar, cherry, exotic woods, etc.

But I am not going to argue.

Brad

When I woodwork with oaks, mahoganys, etc., I use a Benjamin Moore grain filler - it's quite inexpensive, and does a very good job. That said, I heard recently on a woodworking forum that they are about to discontinue the product...

Hope that helped even a bit.

Mark

P.s. FWIW, I like the look of open grain...and the CA I use to seal it usually will create an even surface after the first coat or two...

Originally Posted by icedog

That's interesting Dan, in the product description it says exactly the opposite:
It seals all types of wood including oak, maple, chestnut, mahogany, walnut, birch, poplar, cherry, exotic woods, etc.

But I am not going to argue.

Brad

I never said they don't work, they just don't work well. You'll seal the grain, but the pores will still need considerable topcoating to fill in. To keep the topcoat as thin as possible and reduce the time and energy needed in the rub-out, certain woods need additional filling. Also, depending on if/how you've colored the wood, shellac is not the best option for sealing. If you've used an alcohol based dye or non grain-raising (NGR) stain, you have to use a glue size sealer so that the dye doesn't bleed out.

This is all assuming you want a flat topcoat. If you like the grain and pores to show in your topcoat then a simple coat of the sealer you linked to would be more than adequate for most products (except alcohol dyes and NGR stains like I said).

With regards to the Benjamin Moore pore filler being discontinued, that sucks. I'm a fan of the minwax stuff but I've heard good things about BM's.

I think that Seal coat is a great product for any type wood. It will work fine on over ngr or alcohol dyes.


I do not believe that wet sanding with oil will fill the pores. If anybody can wet sand enough to fill the pores in a ring porous wood such as oak or ash I would be very impressed.


Luckily you don't need to do pore filled finishes on ring porous woods very often.


This is my day to be contrary.

Charlie