On Sun, 28 Dec 2008 10:09:13 -0600, Douglas R. Hortvet, Jr. wrote:

The wood has several linear areas extending the full length that have
very open grain - bigger than pores, IMO.

Will shellac fill openings in the grain that are deep enough to catch a
finger nail?

I haven't tried it myself, but others have used pumice mixed with shellac
to fill pores. Apparently the pumice becomes transparent.

--
It's turtles, all the way down