mohogany plant stand-finish

[John S. Genzer]

I am cutting the pieces to build this project. My first harwood project. I amm looking for more of a glass smooth finish than just a poly coat would give to at least the top and rails/stiles-maybe not on the leggs.

The clerk at woodcraft sold me a water base pore filler and said then wipe on my homemade 50-50 mineral-oil base poly mix that I've used successfully on other soft wood projects.

Does that sound right - waterbase filler then applying an oil base poly? Did the clerk over-simplify and/or leave out some important steps? I'm new at this so the last thing I want/need is to have to sand out/remove a finish mess and start all over again just because someone advised me wrong.

I'd welcome suggestions from anyone with experience. This is a great site.
Thanks,
John.

[Larry Fox]

John, given that it is a plant stand it is likely that it will be exposed to quite a bit of water - some of it standing if it should puddle under a pot or something. You want a glass-smooth finish which certainly implies filling the pores.

This is what I would use as a starting point for the schedule and tweek around to sute your needs.

Starting with scrap!!

- I would want to get some oil into the wood to add some "pop" and I would use BLO.

- As a pore filler I would actually use an oil / pumice slurry. This and the prior step can be done at the same time.

- I would seal with a coat or so of dewaxed shellac.

- I would then apply 3-4 coats of poly. I normally don't use poly as I am not really a fan of it but would in this case for the water resistance. Maybe one of the varnishes rated for exterior use but I understand they really yellow over time (don't have any experience with them).

Hope it helps and please show the project ... cuz we like to see em and we don't see many plant stands.

Edit: One more thing, if you do use BLO definitely make sure you dispose of the rags properly.

[Steve Schoene]

Once you have used a pore filler you cannot use a mix of oil and varnish.

And mixing mineral oil and varnish is never a good idea. It's just not giving you a good finish compared to using a drying oil like linseed or tung oil mixed with the varnish. It's just like adding thinner, but it is thinner that takes almost forever to evaporate.

I prefer oil based commercial pore filler, but water based will work. Waterbased dries so fast that a lot of it must end up being sanded off the surface rather than being wiped off as with oil based. You may want to tint the pore filler.

A good tradional resin varnish would work better than poly. In particular I would use Waterlox which is a tung oil/phenolic resin varnish. Phenolic resin is very tough, and harder than polyurethane resin. Varnishes made with tung oil tend to have more water resistance than those made with linseed oil, which includes just about all consumer grade polyurethane varnishes.

By the way, you don't want marine spar varnish. It's actually a bit less water resistant than regular varnishes because it's a long oil formula to provide flexibility needed on boats.