For water-based stain, can w/b sanding sealer replace wood conditioner?

[Carlos Arteta]

I repaired the broken edge of an interior panel of a wood door using minwax 2-part wood filler. Now, I want to apply sanding sealer and water-based poly (no stain, just the wood's natural color) for a rustic effect. Because the repaired part is grey (the color of the 2-part filler) I want to stain the repaired edge with a darker color stain.

Because I don't want to switch from oil-based stain to water-based poly, I would like to use water-based stain and because I know that minwax water-based stain requires a pre-stain wood conditioner, I was hoping to use the (water-based) sanding sealer as a pre-stain wood conditioner. Is that possible? If so, I'll apply sanding sealer to the whole door, then dark w/b stain to the edge, and then w/b poly.

But if I cannot do that, then I'll apply oil-base stain, then sanding sealer to evertything, then w/b poly. But this would take longer than I want...

Again, I want a rustic look, not a perfect finish, so I am OK with imperfections. (Also, the grey stuff is in the interior of this closet door, so it won't be noticeble most of the time)

Thanks

[Steve Schoene]

What kind of wood is the door and panel made from and what kind of door is it? What exactly was the damage that you repaired with the filler? How large is hte "patch" Can you be more specific about what you want the final product to look like, specifically the color and sheen?

Am I reading this right that you want to apply stain only to the repaired edge? Have you tested stain on the filler, in a sample context to see how it takes it? I'm not seeing how using a "darker stain on the repaired edge" will match natural unstained wood? Minwax recommends that the 2 part filler not be stained and that it takes stain differently from wood. My understanding is that this is similar to bondo, making it best used under paint. It's going to be a challenge to get this to match reasonably well, but it can be done.

You can use oil based stain under water borne finishes as long as they have cured sufficiently. I would recommend using just about any other stain than Minwax, since Minwax stains are more likely than most to have drying problems and to cause problems with top coats.

I can't see why sanding sealer would help anywhere in this process. You might want to use a coat of dewaxed shellac (not sanding sealer though Zinsser Seal Coat has a confusing label) between the stain and the top coat to provide belt and suspenders protections against problems.

[Carlos Arteta]

Steve, thanks for the reply. I am sorry for the lack of clarity.

The context: Like other interior doors in my house, this 75-year old (previously painted and now stripped) closet wood door appears to be made of fir, as does its interior recessed panel. Like the others, there are many dings and small holes, and we want to have a "rustic" look -- no stain, just the natural wood color; imperfect repair to the damage using similar but slightly mismatched wood putty, etc. Unlike the other doors, during the stripping process this door lost its panel -- basically, I have the door frame with a hole in the middle, separated from the interior panel. I glued the panel back. Because of the way the panel came out, there is no sign of the problem in the exterior side of the closet door, but the edge of the panel in the interior needed to be filled to enhance the aadhesion of panel and frame. I chose the 2-part filler for maximum structural soundness. But I simply wanted to camouflage a little bit the grey color in the interior panel edge.

To refinish the other doors, after putty and sanding from 80 up to 220 grit, I used water based sanding sealer, then 220, then 2 coats of water-based satin poly with 220 and 320 grit.

With this door, I didn't know when to do the camouglage part. I wanted to use an oil based stain in the edge (where the thin "strip" on 2-part filler is), then dry, then sanding sealer everywhere and then poly everywhere. But since I need to put this door back asap, and because I didn't have with me the pre-stain conditioner that one is supposed to use before water-based stain, to save time, I was thinking about first putting sanding sealer, then water-based stain in the strip, then poly everywhere. Hence my question: can water-based sanding sealer and pre-water-based-stain wood conditioner be sustitutes? I guessed the answer is no, but I wanted to check with the experts

But since the time of the posting and now, I went ahead and put wood putty on top of the 2-part filler, and sanded. Now I have a "Gustavian-like" or "distressed-looking" edge, which... look pretty rustic... but unexpectedly nice. My wife likes the interesting contrast between the wood, the putty and the visible parts of the grey filler, so we might leave it like that. A pretty rustic look.

Thanks, and sorry for the long response