Painting Pine with Knots Revealed?

[Jacob Reverb]

Years back, I heard about some trick you could use to prepare knotty pine before painting such that after the paint dried, you could wipe the paint off from the knots, and what you would be left with is painted wood, except where there were knots, where the wood was unpainted.

This sounds like something I would like to try, but all the Google machine reveals is ways to cover the knots so they won't bleed through, not ways to reveal them.

Does anyone know how this is done? Maybe put wax over the knots before painting? Or do the knots repel the paint so effectively that it wipes off without any pre-treatment?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

J

[Mel Fulks]

This isn't much ,but I don't see any other replies. I suggest reading up on "pickling".

[Bennett Ostroff]

Can you just...not paint the knots? Here’s what I’d do: could cover the knots with painters/masking tape; scribble over the knot with a pencil until you’re able to see the outline; then use a razor to carefully cut around the perimeter of the knot.

[Jacob Reverb]

Thanks for the replies, fellas. I don't think pickling is the look I'm after, but I honestly don't know, since I've only heard the method described and never actually seen it. Not sure masking would do what I want, as I suspect it would look masked at the paint/no paint interface. (And now I'm questioning whether wax would work for the same reason...)

Maybe I'll try just painting a test piece and then wiping off the paint from the knots, since it sounds like paint doesn't stick to knots very well...

[Jim Becker]

You could use a liquid mask and carefully coat the knots prior to painting, but keep in mind that there will likely be a tangible "line" where the paint stops and the knot starts simply because the paint has a "thickness" that can be felt by touch.

[Jacob Reverb]

Thanks, Jim. I'm going to have to do some testing. Maybe after painting and wiping, I could coat everything with a clear coat to level it all. Will report back when I know more...

[Jim Becker]

If you're going to clear coat, you'll want to carefully select your color product to insure compatibility with the clear.

[Jacob Reverb]

Good point – I wouldn't want the solvent in the clear coat to dissolve the paint and make a mess – thank you. I'll have to test that, as well...

[Lee Schierer]

If you paint pine with out coating the knots, the resin will bleed through most paints after a short time. Normally people don't want to see the knots so they prep the wood by putting a coating of shellac over the knots before they paint. Here is an example of bleed through:
bleed-through.jpg

[Jacob Reverb]

Thanks, Lee. Yes, I wasn't aware of that until I started Googling around looking for an answer to my question. I guess I've never painted knotty pine, or I would have found out about that.

Too bad my Dad's not around to ask anymore – he's the one who told me about it. I was surprised that I couldn't find any images that depicted what (I believe) he was talking about.