Shellac on end grain to block excess uptake of top coat

[Don Morris]

I built a small bedside chest that has a couple pieces of wood at corners with end grain showing. I didn't think of it beforehand and should have designed it with all mitered corners not just some....too late now. I'm concerned the end grain will take up more of the varnish top coat and be noticeable. I'm thinking of putting a coat of shellac on the exposed end grain to prevent this. I got to thinking if I have some parts of the case wood with shellac on them, should I put a coat of shellac on all parts? I would then spray the top coat on top of the shellac. Tht's something I had to do once because some of the wood was very oily.The result was just fine. It's just more work and I have no problem with that, or do I just need shellac (or something else) on the exposed end grain? Comments and suggestions are always very welcome. Thanks in advance. Don M

[glenn bradley]

As with any unknown finishing experiment, test on scrap of the same species and similarly prepared. That said I use two methods for controlling finish absorption on end grain. The easiest is to sand the end grain to a higher grit than the other surfaces. For something like walnut I sand surfaces to 220 and end grain to 600. For things like red oak, ash, and other really open grain woods I mix a 1lb cut of shellac and dab it onto end grain with a paper towel to control the amount. This seals off deeper pores. I still sand to a higher grit but may only go to 320 or so. Again, testing on several sections of test board is the only way to get a true idea of what is going to happen on your "keeper".

[Prashun Patel]

Sand your end grain to a higher grit than your edge grain beforehand.

[John TenEyck]

If you are only applying varnish, no stain or dye, I don't think it matters. But, as said, testing on scrap first is the only way to know.

John

[Edwin Santos]

I think it would be a worthy test to take a decent size piece of endgrain, tape it off into three sections. Treat one section with varnish at your normal grit, one sanded to a higher grit then varnished, and one with shellac then varnished and compare the three to a scrap of edge grain finished with varnish. I predict all three sections of end grain will look different, and this experiment will allow you to confidently pick the one you like.

If you do this, please share your results.