Gel stain over waterlox??

[Michael Donahue]

I needed to use some filler for a nail holes and what not on a set of oak DVD stands and tv stand that I made. The plan was to use a General get stain and top coat it with Waterlox. I want to avoid the 'halo' affect that you can get around filler areas when the filler made its way into the grain, so I was thinking that I could seal the whole thing with a coat of Waterlox before the stain, and then topcoat with Waterlox again.

Will this work?

[Jim Becker]

Your stain becomes a glaze in this case. You'll need to determine if you can get the coloration, etc., that you desire by doing the whole schedule on a piece of scrap from the project.

Honestly, the way to fill small holes like that is near the very end of the whole finishing schedule...with a colored filler pencil that is matched or a hair darker than your final finished piece. You can do this just before the last coats of clear. And there is no halo issue.

[Michael Donahue]

Your stain becomes a glaze in this case. You'll need to determine if you can get the coloration, etc., that you desire by doing the whole schedule on a piece of scrap from the project.

Honestly, the way to fill small holes like that is near the very end of the whole finishing schedule...with a colored filler pencil that is matched or a hair darker than your final finished piece. You can do this just before the last coats of clear. And there is no halo issue.

Unfortunately it's too late at this point but I'm going to look into some filler pencils. Anything has to be better than using 'stainable' fillers (what a joke!).

Thanks for the tip Jim :)

Another option I saw online is to add stain to the waterlox and do it that way. Would this method cause halos too?