Planes, sandpaper, pores, and walnut

[Tom Hoffman]

Like many other Neander wannbes, I'm trying to ween myself from using sandpaper at the final finish stage. The grain on a well planed piece of wood is just so much more crisp and vibrant compared to a sanded surface!

I have a table top of walnut that I've planed. It looks beautiful and I want to have a flat mirror finish by rubbing out (I use Rockhard). I usually sand with 220/320 and BLO to fill the pores, add the varnish and rub out. I've have had good success with this schedule.

On this project, I'm thinking I'll use a pore filler of some sort, then either scrape off the pore filler with a card scraper, or plane it off, then add the varnish.

QUESTION:

Has anyone out there tried and done this successfully?
Would it help to put a washcoat of shellac down first, the fill the pores, then scrap/plane?

My goal is to preserve the "crispness" of the planed surface and have filled pores to make the varnish rubbing out easier to get a mirror flat finish.

[Scott Holmes]

Tom,

If you want to really wow everyone...

Use the BLO as you described then fill the grain with shellac, IMHO garnet is best on walnut. Use a 2# cut, 3 or 4 coats done as soon as the previous coat is dry. I like to wait a day to make sure the shellac is completely dry, then scrape it back with your hand/cabinet scraper. If you see small shiny dimples in the grain then you have not completely filled the grain and you will need to repeat the fill steps.

Now you have a hard, optically clear, fill in your walnut. Remember that high gloss finish needs to be flat. Many get flat and smooth confused; a baby's butt is smooth, but it's not flat. Your high gloss table top needs to be flat.

[Tom Hoffman]

Sounds like good advice, but I think I'll use a plane instead of the scraper for the "final" flattening (although it will be planed flat before the shellac goes on).

Do you see a need to scrape/plane between coats of shellac? I'm thinking that to do so would lessen the amount of shellac to remove during that final flattening.

[Scott Holmes]

No sanding between coats needed, I usually build it up then make it flat.

This is the only time shellac should be built up thick. The perfect shellac finish is the thinnest possible coat finish that is flawless. e.g. French polish.