Need help finishing a spalted piece

[Matt Haus]

I have finished a really nice piece of spalted maple. the piece has been sanded to 800 grit but before that, I had to put sanding sealer on the spalted part to get the cuts smooth. I had to sand it a lot to finally get the spalted area smooth.

Now that I have it finish sanded, 1/2 of the piece is hard and glossy (the white sapwood part) while the other half is nonglossy but is relatively smooth but still has a minute feel of (for lack of a better word) soft wood.

I have applied several coats of BLO to the outside and it has helped the sapwood part but it soaks right into the spalted areas. I am not sure what to do. Should I apply another coat of sand sealer and sand again or go to a type of finish? I am happy with the smoothness of the piece but am wondering if the thing won't give me problems of I use the Beall buffing system, especially on the spalted part. What would be a good finish? I don't have any laquer or shellac, only wipe on poly - which might soak right into the wood too. I am not apposed to buying what I need to finish it.

I hope I have been specific enough.

THanks.

[Matt Haus]

No one has had this problem?

[Chris Barton]

Hi Matt,

Some confussion may exist around what your are asking. What finish do you want to achieve? If you want a glossy finish then you will need to apply a gloss finsh like like sanding sealer (usually shellac) until the grain is filled and you can polish the surface. If you want a simi-gloss or flat/mat finish then you will need to sand off the sealer and stick with a finish like BLO over the entire piece.

[Matt Haus]

THanks Chris,

I am looking for a glossy finish.

[Jonathon Spafford]

If you are looking to harden up punky spots then you should maybe try 50/50 mixture of laquer and laquer thinner, miniwax wood hardener or something like that. Even epoxy diluted with acetone or maybe DNA would probably also work!