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George Bokros
02-01-2015, 2:49 PM
Went to the Columbus Woodworking Show yesterday and attended a class on wipe on finishing by Bob Settich. As a part of his class he demonstrated some powders along with Watco Danish Oil to fill the grain. On lighter woods he used Whiting and on darker woods he used rottenstone. He applied this with the Watco and rubbed it into the grain then squeegeed it off. He said you would then apply a film building finish such as MinWax Wipe On Poly. The question came up as to if you wanted to stain. Bob said you would do so after applying the Whiting and Danish Oil.

I checked on the manufacturers website (Empire Blended Products) and found that Whiting is finely ground calcium carbonate which I believe is limestone.

Has anyone done anything like this? Will this take stain?

Steve Schoene
02-01-2015, 4:17 PM
Staining after pore filling is highly problematic. Ssometimes the binder (watco) isn't all removed from the surface between pores and stain only "takes" lightly. It would generally be better to add pigment to the pore filler. The materials as filler are relatively traditional (pumice and plaster of paris also) but I prefer pore fillers with high percentages of silex (silic or silicate) which gives a translucent fill and which shrinks very little. Sherwin Williams grain filler is almost 100% silex, though only sold in gallons.