Hello All,
I have recently been finishing some of my Indonesian mahogany walking staffs with Zinsser clear spray shellac. On the latest staff something odd happened.
I typically use a combination of exotic woods along with the mahogany and the exotics always finish out like glass. I stained the mahogany portions with a typical oil based stain. Later I started spraying the entire staff. After about the third coat of shellac when I came back after a drying period I found that the mahogany was covered with tiny bubbles, and when I say bubbles I mean actual spherical hollow clear bubbles smaller than the head of a pin. Each bubble was sitting on a pore opening in the wood. I assume that means the wood was outgassing something and it also tells me that the shellac was not particularly sealing the pores.
This is something I have noted with mahogany. The shellac never seems to fill in the pores despite wet sanding between coats. Instead it seems to continually migrate away from the pores no matter how many coats I apply.
Does anyone know what is going on here with the bubbles? Once I sand them off and respray the finish comes out okay, but it is still weird. Is there a good way to fill the pores in mahogany so I can get a glassy finish without the typical dimples at the pores?
One other question ... can I spray lacquer over shellac or vice versa? Are they compatible?
Thanks.