Mahogany finishing and Liberon wax?

[Jim Mackell]

Going to be finishing a bunch of mahogany panels. They've been sanded and now have several coats of shellac as a sealer. Pore filling is the next step. It's a tossup between Liberon wax and standard pore-o-pac grain filler. A very good article by Chris Schwartz title "The simple Dirty Mahogany Finsh" seems to provide the exact results and coloring I want to achieve. But left unsaid is whether varnish can then be applied over the newly filled surface. Anyone used this? Results?

[Kent A Bathurst]

Going to be finishing a bunch of mahogany panels. They've been sanded and now have several coats of shellac as a sealer. Pore filling is the next step. It's a tossup between Liberon wax and standard pore-o-pac grain filler. A very good article by Chris Schwartz title "The simple Dirty Mahogany Finsh" seems to provide the exact results and coloring I want to achieve. But left unsaid is whether varnish can then be applied over the newly filled surface. Anyone used this? Results?

I've used the Pore-O-Pac to color pores on QSWO before. I always let it dry for 24 hrs, then sealed it with 1 or 2 lite coats of 1# shellac before varnish. Never had a problem. The sealing might not really be necessary - but it made me feel better, so what the heck?

[Steve Schoene]

Naturally, you can't use varnish, or much of anything, over surfaces filled with wax. But pore filler such as Por O Pac are designed to be topped by something, and varnish is certainly a feasible choice. The only caveat I have is that you must let the pore filler get well dried before you put on a top coat. In my opinion, the PoreOPac label gives an overcoat time that is too aggressive and I would let it cure for more like a week. The downside of overcoating too quickly is that the filler can turn greyish white at some time down the road. The only cure for that would be to strip all the finish off and start over. I like to tint the pore filler to end up a bit darker than the surrounding surface. By the way, last time I used PoreOPac is came almost paste thick. I prefer to thin with naptha to a consistency more like really heavy creme, using naphtha.

[Jim Mackell]

Thanks Steve, that's kind of what I expected. Pore-o-pac it is.