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Old 01-03-2022, 07:50 AM
redir redir is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Mountains of Virginia
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As mentioned it will take forever to just use shellac. If you do go that rout then use a brush and brush it on heavy. But I would highly recommend you don't do that. It's not only a waste of shellac but will literally take weeks.

There are lots of ways to pore fill out there now. On the last few I have used a pore fill product called Aqua Coat and it's fantastic stuff. Very fast, can be dyed, or dries clear and so on.

I have used CA to pore fill too and that works fantastic. You simply drizzle on the CA and squeegee it off with a paper towel. Dries fast. But you need proper ventilation for that method.

The two old school methods I have used is pumice and egg whites. Pumice is the traditional method that takes a lot of work but does a great job. Brush on a few coats of shellac and then with your FP pad sprinkle some pumice on paper then touch the pad to it picking some up. Drop several drops of alcohol on the pad to clear the pumice and what you have essentially done is made a sanding pad. The pumice tears fibers of wood and the alcohol and shellac glue them into the pores. A big mistake is in thinking you are filling the pores with pumice.

Egg whites are just that, the whites of the egg. Put a couple egg whites in a bowl, dip a piece of 320 grit paper in it and sand up a slurry of egg white and saw dust to pack in the pores. It dries very hard in short time. Then you sand back and do it again as necessary. It works surprisingly well.

There is of course traditional oil based fillers too. The only problem with those is they take a while to dry and they will stain the wood too but that is generally acceptable.

I only used epoxy once and I hated it but many do.

In the end though the point of pore filling regardless of what you use is to fill the pores so that your top coats are smooth. When you fill the pores imho you should always sand back to wood leaving only the pores filled before you move on to top coats. Some who use epoxy leave a layer of epoxy on as the base coat, not just filling the pores but an entire coat. I don't like that idea. I am one of those who thinks epoxy is good for boats and that is about it But many do and it seems to work for them.
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