# Sanding sealer



## mailee (30 Sep 2008)

How many coats of sanding sealer do you guys use on pine? I am asking as I have just started putting some stain on the drawer fronts of the wardrobes and some of them have turned out blotchy! I gave them all two good coats of Cellulose sanding sealer and sanded them back with 320 grit before applying the Rustins spirit based stain with a cloth as I usually do. The raised panels for the doors have turned out fine strangely but not the drawer fronts?? :?


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## CHJ (30 Sep 2008)

I personally would have thought that any stain should be applied to unsealed timber or used mixed with a compatible sealer to achieve the desired tone.


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## OPJ (1 Oct 2008)

I normally put on a minimum of two coats. I've just started using a Shellac-based sanding sealer (Chestnut) and am finding it a lot easier to work with than the cellulose stuff. You don't need to thin down the first coat, it goes on quite easily. But, I generally go for a wax finish after that. I don't really have much experience with staining.


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## Terry Smart (1 Oct 2008)

Pine is often a problem when staining and will often give a patchy effect. This is one of the reasons coloured waxes became so popular as they will give a much more even effect. 

Chas is right that usually stain goes on unsealed wood, it needs to be able to soak in to work and if the wood is sealed this can't happen... except sometimes in the case of pine.
My usual advice is a case such as this is to apply one thin coat of sanding sealer first; this will partially seal the more open areas but have little effect on the less open areas, giving a more even surface to stain.

Apart from the above, we would only normally recommend one coat of cellulose sanding sealer unless working with very open grained timber. If you apply a wax after several coats of sealer it won't matter but if you use a lacquer then there is a danger that several months down the line the whole surface could craze, giving an interesting effect but probably not one you want.
Shellac Sealer doesn't have the same problem as it is not as hard.

Darn I hate telling people to use less of our products!


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## mailee (1 Oct 2008)

Thanks Terry for the input. I do find from past experience that fresh stain on untreated pine just soaks straight in and goes very blotchy, hence the sanding sealer. I generally give a light coat to start with and then seal over that but this wood seems very porus. I have tried the Shellac based sanding sealer and find it doesn't dry hard enough to sand and also take a while to dry compared to Cellulose based. I do not intend to wax this piece as it will have a lot of wear and tear so I shall be using acrylic varnish as the top coat for this one. It looks like I may have to re strip a couple of the pieces and start again though.


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## Pete Howlett (9 Oct 2008)

Use a tinted varnish... as a musical instrument maker we would seal, colour/tint then topcoat clear for softwood rather than try to colour the bare wood.


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## Derek Willis. (27 Oct 2008)

Use a spirit stain and mix it with shellac, stain and seal in one go, it goes on much more even and gets over a lot of the problem of the different density of grain in pine.
Derek.


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