Sanding sealer

[Guest]

I am in a bit of a quandry with sanding sealer.
When finishing"furniture"(not my favorite part of woodworking)I use a spit coat of shelac and most of it gets sanded off before I stain or put a top coat on.
While doing a little referance work I was reading a book by Bob Flexner asn he stated that a sealer is the initial coat of a finish.
Herein lies the question.
How does one finish a pen with sanding sealer?
Up until now I have exclusively used CA but I want to try something less time consuming but still get a gloss or high gloss finish.
TIA

 

[Fred in NC]

I use shellac too. It is considered to be the universal sealer, especially between dissimilar coats. I use it on pens after the 400 grit. It is no good as a finish because alcohol dissolves it.

Sealers fill the pores and harden the surface so it can be sanded to finer grits.

My take is that anything you put on the wood eventually becomes part of the finish.

That is my understanding ...

 

[Guest]

O.K. got it now.
WHen I do an antler pen I start by applying a thin coat of CA.This is after final turning with a Skew.I could start sanding at 320 or better.
I start my sanding a 220 knowing that I will take most of the CA off.
In that instance I was using ca as a sealer.
I have been wet sanding with BLO on porous woods.Fills the grain nicely.
My purose in asking is that I am using maple and it tends to discolor.
I really like the BLO on dark woods.
It does give it a nice shine and will harden up if you don't burn your thumbs.

 

[Fred in NC]

I often use blonde shellac as a sealer. About 1-1/2 pound cut, that is 1/2 shellac from the can and 1/2 denatured alcohol. No wet sanding with the shellac, It dries fast.

A finish that I also use as a sealer is MinWax PolyCrylic. This one is totally clear. I apply with a lintless pad. Does not dry as fast as shellac, but ... I have a hair dryer handy and it seems to work with this one.

 

[tipusnr]

I'm sorry...This thing about shellac being dissolved by alcohol keeps bouncing around in my brain. Do that many people stir their drinks with custom made pens for this to be a problem? []

 

[Fred in NC]

Bill: I don't use shellac as a finish !

Shellac is used only as sanding sealer. After sanding, a different finish is applied, such as CA, acrylic, etc. You can put almost anything on top of shellac.