"Swingman" wrote in message
...

wrote

No. Shellac or any other finish will simply mirror the texture of the
substrate you are finishing. And with red oak... you couldn't have
picked a tougher wood to try to smooth out. The tubules are deep and
large, and while many finishes will easily span the pores, they will
not fill them on their own. The exception being of course, that you
use the classic approach of applying several thick built up coats that
you will cut down later with a buffer or using the french polish
method.
snip

Keep'em coming, Robert ... your book is taking shape, on my hard drive!


If you use an oil based finish the easiest, old-fashioned, low-tech solution
to filling the pores in red oak or other open pored woods is plaster of
Paris... After the surface is hand planed/sanded apply the plaster of Paris,
let it dry, sand it off, vacuum and tack rag the surface, and then apply
your oil based finish. The plaster of Paris becomes transparent with the
oil.

Note that this will not work for filling gouges and other defects as the
plaster will show up if it's too thick. For grain filling and minor surface
defects it works just fine. Obviously, try some samples to get a feel for
this before doing, say, the top of a large table. ;~)

If you are using stain play with the plaster before and after staining to
see what works with your combination of wood, stain and finish.

I find this is a lot faster than applying myriad thick coats of finish and
sanding them smooth as the plaster dries fast and sands quickly.

John