My question is on the subject of finishing. On small pieces that I make, I start out with a shellac sealer coat and see what the wood will look like. Most of the time I am not surprised – having raised the grain with water and applying some alcohol along the way to search for areas needing some clean up.
My Question: When you see the finish has pronounced the grain pores in the wood(walnut for example) do you consider filler at this point? I have applied some filler after(brown from a can) I have sealed the wood and I can see the pores filling a bit – my concern is the bond. Wondering if the bond is strong enough after a few days to seal it again with some shellac??
Replies
Dan,
You have the schedule correct; color ( optional), washcoat, fill, seal and finish.
Let the filler dry for a few days to let the oil flash off. If it is humid give it some more time. Use your nose to tell you if it's ready to be finished.
As long as you've given it enough time you can seal it with shellac and have a very good bond. If filler gets finished too soon, you'll get something called solvent pop. It will be little rough spots on the surface where the solvent is forcing it's way to the surface. You'll only make that mistake once ( and how do I know that?)
A quick note on fillers; the filling component in fillers was primarily silex, ground quartz, in the past.
Now calcium carbonate is used along with diamateous earth. Not that it's better, quite the contrary, it's a whole lot cheaper. I spoke with a chemist a couple of years ago and he told me by the rail car, calcium carbonate was three cents a pound and silex was fifteen cents.
Sherwin Williams filler is one of the few I know of that still has silex as the filling component.
You can feel the difference when it's being removed from the surface and in my opinion is superior.
A question for you; call sign?
Peter
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