I’m building a small end table out of walnut and can not decide if I want to fill the grian. I do like the idea of a smoother surface since it will be a table, but I dont mind the open-pored look either. There is some nice figure in the walnut and I’m going to be using the Sam Maloof finish. I do realize it is personal opinion but I’d like to here some of them.
For those who like to fill the grain, what method do you prefer. I have paste filler, but I also thought that using the oil/varnish to make a slurry might also work (but not sure).
Would it work to just fill the grain on the top or would that stand out too much from the rest of the piece.
Last thing… If I do fill the grain, since I have some BE maple inlay in the top, would I have to inlay after I fill the grain?
Replies
I like BLO and 4F pumice, wet-sanding it all in, and then wiping off the excess cross-grain.
Edited 2/1/2006 7:01 pm ET by pzgren
I'm not an advocate of using sanding slurry to fill grain, and in any case with your maple inlay, I think it would cause problems.
I like the oil based filler sold by Constantine's, but the Behlen also works well, however it dries more quickly, forcing you to work in smaller areas at a time.
I never put filler over bare wood. Instead I use a very thin coat of de-waxed shellac as a barrier coat. The filler won't effect your maple inlay due to the barrier coat and the fact that it is an closed grain wood.
The quality of my finishes took a quantum leap, when I started filling the grain. I now fill the grain on every surface that does not feature carvings or turnings, but filling only the top is a more common approach.
Rob Millard
Like Rob said, slurry filling when you have maple inlay will be a problem. In fact, be careful with sanding, lest the walnut dust get into the maple pores. May be a good time to tune up a scraper for that final smoothing...
I'm glad you added the scraper tune up bit. The biggest reason I haven't wanted to fill the grain is because I just got my jointer tuned up and it leaves such a great surface that I dont want to sand. Thus, I scraped the top but now think I would have to sand anyways since I need to fill the grain. But, Im thinking that you are saying I can still get a scraped surface. (For others reading, Im not looking to start sand vrs. scraped debate).
However, I still dont feel my scraper is tuned properly... I think Ill start a new thread for tips on this unless someone wants to chime in on this subject here also.
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