Compatibility of Z-poxy pore filler under an oil stain

[Matt Harris75]

Greetings everyone.

First post here, and I'm looking for a little advice. I'm building a bar for my kitchen to replace an existing granite bar. Here's a picture of where I am at currently:



Still have to ease the edges and have more sanding to do, but it's looking good so far.

I picked walnut with a lot of sapwood, because my wife likes the contrast (And I admit, I like it as well).

My initial finishing plan was to pore fill with Z-poxy Finishing Resin (sanding back and leaving it only in the pores), and then proceed to finish with Waterlox. I am comfortable with the Z-poxy pore filling process, having done it on a number of electric guitar/bass builds.

However, as one is wont to do, I spent too much time researching and looking at pictures on the internet. And consequently I found someone that used Minwax oil based golden oak stain under Waterlox on sappy walnut. And the coloration and contrast were just awesome, exactly what I'd like to achieve.

There doesn't seem to be much information out there on Z-Poxy (in grain only) under oil stain under Waterlox as a finish. The closest thing I can find is that it's not a good idea to try to epoxy over oil stain, which is really quite different, I think, than what I'm trying to do.

So, naturally I did a test finish. And so far so good. The oil stain seemed to take very well over the Z-poxy. My thought is that as long as I am careful to remove the epoxy from the surface of the wood, leaving it only in the pores, and allowing it to cure properly first, I won't have any issues with blotchiness or the stain not drying.

That seems to be the case in the short term, but I don't want any issues to pop up down the road. So I was wondering if anyone has used a similar process, or those with greater experience can affirm my thoughts, or just tell me I'm crazy for trying it.

My other thought was to attempt to find a dye (or mix one up) that approximates the color of the stain as closely as possible, and use that in place of the stain, as I feel confident that would eventually work (although I may run out of offcuts trying to get the color right ).

Thanks!

-Matt