Filling hickory pores

[Mark Gibney]

I want to color some hickory stool legs but not darken the large pores more than the rest of the wood. I want the legs to looks less "coarse" than otherwise.

I figured I would need to fill the grain first, sand and then color the wood. I'm thinking of using Danish oil to add the color.

I have little to no experience of this, so right now it seems I have two options -

- use a grain filler like CrystalLac from Rockler

- use a wood filler that is a lighter shade of what I want to final color to be

Any information is good information in this case, if I'm way off track on any of this please let me know.

thank you, Mark

[Steve Eure]

I used Crystallac on a project recently that was made from red oak and had good results. Although the product dries clear, I tinted mine black to match the black dye on the project. It did what it was supposed to do. I let it dry for a short time, probably 7-8 minutes and then scraped it off with a plastic putty knife. Then I rubbed it down with burlap until smooth. Let it dry for a while, then sanded to 220 grit. Turned out smooth as glass.