pores in wood

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steamshovel

steamshovel

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I just finished a pen and I think it looks fine but I have a question. I have magnified the picture for better viewing.
But first let me tell what I have done so far. I put two coats of sanding sealer and sanded up to 2,000 grit after coating. So far it looked good to me so I put on several coats of Mylands polish.
My question is should I have used a stain the color of the wood to cover up the pores first. It looks fine to me but!

Am I just worrying about nothing?

Thank in advance

Preston
 

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steamshovel said:
I just finished a pen and I think it looks fine but I have a question. I have magnified the picture for better viewing.
But first let me tell what I have done so far. I put two coats of sanding sealer and sanded up to 2,000 grit after coating. So far it looked good to me so I put on several coats of Mylands polish.
My question is should I have used a stain the color of the wood to cover up the pores first. It looks fine to me but!

Am I just worrying about nothing?

Thank in advance

Preston
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Forget sanding sealer. Pour thin ca over the wood while it's on the lathe. get 120 grit sandpaper and turn the lathe on full speed. Hold the sandpaper against the barrel while it's spinning and get ready for hot ca to splash on your arm. Keep it moving along the barrel and it will pick up sawdust from the wood, mix it with the CA and perfectly seal all the holes.

Takes a little practice but nothing works better.
 
Preston; I agree with Steve on forgetting the sanding sealer. I use a little different method to seal the wood however. I sand my blanks with 400-1200 grit paper, wipe them down with a tac cloth, turn my lathe down to it's slowest speed, and apply 4 coats of thick CA with a clean soft white napkin moving back and forth to even out the coats. Apply accelerator. I than add 4 more coats of thick CA, accelerator, and wipe dry. Stop your lathe and hand sand from end to end (across the grain) with 400 than 1200 grit finishing paper. wipe with the tac cloth after each grade change. Speed up your lathe and apply a coat of One-Step Polish and buff to a shine. No glue flying off your blank, no open pores in your wood, and your done with the whole process in less than 5 minutes. Put your pen together and your ready for your next project!!! There are many good articals and videos in the library on how to apply a CA finish. Everyone has a little different way of doing it. It just takes a little practice. Jim S
 
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A few coats of thin CA would work better before going to thick IMHO. Bu the idea is to seal the pores and level. Sanding sealer works, but would require more coats than CA. If you want to use sanding sealer, the first few coats at 50/50 to thinner would allow it to soak in better not being as thick.
 
steve worcester said:
A few coats of thin CA would work better before going to thick IMHO. Bu the idea is to seal the pores and level. Sanding sealer works, but would require more coats than CA. If you want to use sanding sealer, the first few coats at 50/50 to thinner would allow it to soak in better not being as thick.
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Steve: If I have spalted, cracked, or punky wood I will use thin CA first to stableize the blank, but if I have a good solid blank I will go right to the Thick CA, or gap filling CA as it is called. It will build faster with a lesser number of coats required to fill pores, gaps, and cracks. there is also lesser chance of sanding through the thicker coats. As I said, this is just one of my ways of finishing a pen blank that has some problems, everybody has a different way of doing it. Also in the colder months I have open flames in my shop heaters, and don't want to use a thinner indoors. Jim S
 
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There are a couple of options to consider.

If you want to avoid ca, I'd try wet sanding through all the grits with walnut oil or something similar - even the sanding sealer or a friction finish. The sanding dust will form a slurry with the oil etc that will often fill pores.

Otherwise ca is a simple fix for most probs. I usually start with thin and go from there.

I'm not sure what advantage it would be to to have the lathe going full bore for putting ca on. I run mine much slower for ca finish (300) but might go as fast as 1000 for a purpose like this
 
Some woods just have a very open grain. When I get one of those, I sand with thin CA. I put the CA on the sandpaper, not the blank, however. With the piece spinning I put a stripe of CA across a strip of sandpaper and apply it to the bottom of the spinning piece, running it back and forth. (Wear goggles or a face shield! Especially if you are wearing prescription lenses. DAMHIK!) After a couple of applications of thin CA sanded in, the open grain will be filled with it's own sawdust, so it matches the piece perfectly. Then sand and finish as usual.
 
If do not want to see pores do not use Mylands products. Even with their sealer need too many coats to seal the pores.

If going to celebrate open pores Mylands & Sealers an excellent product. There are less expensive products on the market.

Sanding sealer is not a pore filler, just used to get a faster build when using a film finish. They do make oil & water based fore fillers which do not recommend for pens.

Film finishes better at filling pores with enough coats. While CA not technically a wood finish it does build up with more coats.

Cannot tell by my photos but I shoot for both gloss and natural feel of wood when working with open grain wood. I will also try to manipulate the grain of the wood for more impact.
 

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To join the thread; Make sure you wipe down the blank with acetone or DNA to remove any sanding dust before you apply CA (or any finish for that matter). If not, you can get the pores filled with what appear to be white dots.
 
I wet sand with 340 grit and BLO to fill the pores. Fills the pores very well. It does darken the wood a little compared to the CA only method.
 
I like the pores...it reminds people that it is a wood pen. Maybe think about changing finishes though...Mylands will wear off after a very short time.
 
Now we have seen several solutions to filling the pores, but looking at things from another perpective....

Are the "pores" actually from the wood grain, or is that tear out from dull tools or aggressive cutting? I looked at it a few more times and I am leaning towards tear out. (Apologies if I am off base.) If it is tear out, the question goes away with sharper tools and/or better technique.
 
Good point Tom. Walnut and Paduk seem to have a long open grain with those little pores. Tear out is really common with, as you mentioned, dull tools, end grain and many many burls. Experience is the key to cure tear out!
 
Kovalcik, go back and look at original picture, no problem with turning it is the wood and finish not filling those pores.

Mylands and other woodturning friction finishes will fill pores if flood the area and let them set up for awhile. How long you need to wait will vary and will be removing finish as you proceed with friction finishing procedure. So time and number of coats needed to get completely smooth glossy finish pretty much a crap shoot.

CA or other film finish more predictable for a smooth glossy finish.
 
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