Old School Pore Filling.

Re: Old School Pore Filling. *LINK*

MikeW

>Hi Paul,

The link below goes to a decent set of instructions--saves me typing it up. The "muneca" is simply the pad one uses for applying shellac.

In short, yes, you want pumice.

Take care, Mike


Filling instructions

Pumice or Rottonstone or..

Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret

>calcium carbonate (whiting) and mix with linseed oil and or thinned oil based varnish. Apply it with a rag and rub it circular into the grain then with a flat scree remove the excess and allow to dry.

Sand or scrape (it is tough on scrapers) then repeat the process if necessary, two applications are a good idea, even three if the pores are big.

They would add white lead to speed up the drying and curing time of the oil. You can use other metallic driers such as cobalt or japan, if you prefer not to work with lead.

The color is a dull grey or dirty white when dry and will accept stain. I usually add a little dry powdered pigment to get close to the color of the finished wood.

Stephen

A simple approach

Denny

>A very easy approach that has worked well for me when finishing African Mahogany is to wet sand with Waterlox. A couple of applications is all that I've needed for a smooth finish and a very natural look. Try it, you might like it.

Denny

Re: Old School Pore Filling.

Tony - Memphis

>There was an article in FWW I believe that discussed using plaster as a filler. Haven't tried it as I'm not a filler kind of guy, but it sounded interesting.

Tony

Re: Old School Pore Filling.

Robin Corell in Atascadero, CA

>Hot hide glue mixed 10:1 applied liberaly and spread around with a plastic spreader, scrape off the excess as it cools. This was used traditionaly to size the surface. it will rase the grain and fill the pores on walnut, and after light sanding and a second application it produces a glassy surface. It needs no tinting or staining to match and makes the pores disaper. I've used lacquer and tung oil on top of this with good results.

Robin Corell

Re: Old School Pore Filling.

Dave Anderson Chester, NH

>The standard method in the 18th century was to use brick dust on mahogany.

Re: Old School Pore Filling.

"RJ" Whelan

>Paul ....

First a warning - I love African Mahogany, but after using it about three times I developed an extreme allergic reaction to it (so severe I ended up in the ER). Hope your experience is not the same.

1. To fill the grain I flooded the surface with BLO and wet sanded with 120-150 paper - then wiped the residue off (across the grain) and let it cure for 24 hours.

2. Second step is the same as the first, but step up to 220 paper.

3. Third step is the same as one and two but go up to 320 and wipe with the grain.

4. Sand with 600.

5. Apply one or two coats of shellac (I used amber/dewaxed that I mixed from flake - 3lb cut).

6. Apply your choice of top coats - on table tops I prefer Behlen's "Rock Hard Table Top Varnish".

Good luck ... rj

Re: Old School Pore Filling.

Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret

>Interesting you should mention this method, the English would treat the surfaces with hide glue size to prepare the wood prior to French Polishing. Perhaps this would be British Polishing.

Stephen

Re: Old School Pore Filling.

Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret

>Another method was to include alkanet root as the coloring agent to stain the pore filler and wood a rich purple red color. This alas fades as it is a fugitive color, leaving the sometimes white speckling of the gray or off white pore filler material.

Stephen

Isn't it interesting...

Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret

>that we go to all the trouble to make sure all our surfaces are free from grit and dirt while we are working them, then at the very last moment, just pack that wood full of dirt and marvel at its smoothness.

Stephen

Re: Isn't it interesting...

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>I think it is interesting that there are so many different responses to this question. It shows that years ago, just like today, different workers used different methods. When I read "here is the proper method to ...", I often think "not the only way".

I once tried a cornstarch method that Charles Hayward said was common 100 years ago or more, but did not get results good enough to recommend it. Polish filling does not use dirt.

Jeff Jewitt...

Ted Owen, Pittsburgh

>demo's using the BLO and Rottenstone that Stephen mentioned. Comes out nice.

Best, Ted

It ain't dirt when . . .

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>. . . you deliberately put it there to do something useful.

Sanding dust in my tool cabinet = messy dirt

Sanding dust in glue = filler

Oil on my hands = yucky dirt

10w/40 in the motor = lubricant

Chicken manure on my boots = smelly dirt

Chicken manure in the garden = nutrients

Penicillium mold in bread = tainted food

Penicillin mold in a syrup = life saving medicine

regards

Angus Barclay

I like it Angus! Well stated.

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>

Awesome!

Paul Kierstead

>What a great bunch of replies. From an elegant-solution point of view (I'll admit my WW has odd goals sometimes), I quite like the shellac + pumice one MikeW posted, so I think I'll experiment with that first, but the hide glue one also has elegance.

I think I am probably also slightly allergic to the wood as well. When the initial rough planing was done, it generated some dust, and that dust made me cough pretty well and tended to make me itch. I was more careful even with the planing after that (took a heaver cut when the wood was rough). I am going to avoid sanding the raw wood as much as absolutely possible.

With any luck, I'll report back the results.

Re: Awesome!

"RJ" Whelan

>Paul ... good luck.

I tried every plane I owned (at the time - the best probably being a C&W smoother) and this material defeated every one of them. The tear out was about as bad as I've ever seen.

Scrapers fared a little better - the best being a hand-held card scraper with a 45 degree bevel and just a hint of burr.

Finally I had to resort to a ROS followed by hand sanding to get an acceptable starting point for grain filling.

If you're like me, the allergy will get worse with each session. The last time I used it I got about two rips on the TS and got to coughing so hard (and continuously) that I couldn't get my breath and ended up in the ER. I was so scared of the material I wouldn't even burn it in my (supposedly) air-tight wood stove. I ended up giving the wood to a friend who is lucky enough to be able to use is without the slightest allergic reaction.

I've used just about every type of mahogany available, and this is the only one that has produced symptoms like these. BTW - I did wear a dust mask (a disposable, not a really good one).

rj

Recipe

Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret

>TO POLISH WOOD,

Take a piece of pumice stone, and water, and pass regularly over the work until the raising of the grain is cut down: then take powdered tripoli and boiled linseed oil, and polish the work to a bright surface.

1824 recipe book London

Stephen