Wood with the most severe grain raising ?

[oakmitre]

Which wood generally has the most severe grain raising problems with water based finish ?

I have made my own sanding sealer which is compatible with water based finish.

I have been using it for the past couple of years and have managed to eliminate grain raising on spruce/spruce plywood.

What would you recommend I move onto. I am looking for a real test.

 

[Keithie]

Thats a very good question! I dont know the answer but I had two thoughts..

1. In some sodtwoods it seems to me that the seasonal shifts in growth can mean quite sudden shifts in texture between harder and softer wood which, when turned by a novice like me (even pretty gently) cause a lot of 'furriness' and its very easy to rip the grain (for me). This pic is of some of my green western cedar (or perhaps douglas fir) after some very gentle skew planing ...still very 'furry'

2. I thought I'd look at the US dept of Agriculture defintion of raised grain and see what they had to say.. this link is vaguely helpful..

https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn99.pdf

in that it describes the processes that can leading to raised grain, some of the biologcal reasons etc and concludes that the grain most likely to tear/rase is the 'tension wood' in species ...so it might not just be the wood so much as which bit of the tree the wood came from! Also, kinda obviously, it points out that signifcant mismanagent of the wood (too agreesive wood turning, too much compression in planing etc) can caused grain to raise....so you just need to mangle a few bits of rough green wood in the planer then shred them on the lathe and you'll have a good test!

You probably need someone with more experience than me to give a more helpful answer!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Which wood generally has the most severe grain raising problems with water based finish ?

I have made my own sanding sealer which is compatible with water based finish.

I have been using it for the past couple of years and have managed to eliminate grain raising on spruce/spruce plywood.

What would you recommend I move onto. I am looking for a real test.

Well the classic open grained woods spring to mind ie Oak or Ash. Both respond with a very spikey surface once water has hit them so they're worth a try as a calibrating environment.

 

[Peter Sefton]

Most of the ring porous timbers will raise a fair amount when used with water based products. We tend to damp and re sand as part of our clean up procedure prior to any finishing, even more so if staining.

Cheers Peter

 

[YoungSalt]

In my experience the lighter, fluffier khaya mahogany can be a nightmare - some of the lighter, fluffy grained meranti can be troublesome too.

 

[oakmitre]

Many thanks for the replies, and for taking the time to upload the lathe photo

I have oak,ash,meranti,spruce,redwood and a few others.

What final sanding grit before applying the sealer would give a good test. Also would it be fair to say this all has to be sanded by hand in the direction of the grain with hard pad.

I presume ROS would give different results to the grain raising.

 

[oakmitre]

I've tried to photograph my results on a piece of oak I have. It's not that easy to photograph wood grain

The oak was sanded to around 500 grit, the sealer applied then left for 24 hours. I gave the wood a very gentle swipe with some finishing paper, probably over 600 grit to remove some tiny nibs.

I then applied 2 thin coats of Ronseal diamond hard floor varnish (water based).

Have I achieved anything ?

 

[dcmguy]

I prefer the overall appearance of the second pic (oak1) largely because of the colour, but the first (oak2) looks better finished.