Getting the best from oak

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tim

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Excuse me but I seem to be having a bit of a brain fart and need some help.

I'm making a bench (for indoor use) which has a top made of one single piece of oak c 400mm wide, 1200mm long and 40 mm thick. It has two fab big knots in it which I want to make something of (ie rather than hide) and I also want to make the most of the grain.

My thinking is that i will put a couple of coats of oil on it then grain filler and then wax. That is the right way round isn't it? My brain keeps trying to tell me to put the grain filler down first but I don't know why. Also do i need filler if I use a shellac sanding sealer - I don't work with oak that much so I'm not used to such open grain.

Apologies for being thick on this one :oops:

Thanks

T
 
Tim,

I am not sure if the knots are relevant to your question - do they need filling?

If not (and that is the way I am reading your post) then I wonder why you want to fill the oak grain at all? Sure, it is a very open grained wood and if you wish you could fill it to the point where you could make a "piano finish" on it .

To do so is simply to ignore/deny the character of the wood IMHO. I would just oil and wax it.

I would also leave the sanding sealer out of the equation. Many people seem to mis-use this stuff. It is not designed as a finish nor is it a grain filler - its primary purpose is to facilitate sanding (hence the stearates it is usually loaded with) and for creating a surface suitable for final finishing. If you put it on before oiling, you will hinder the penetration of the oil. To put it on after achieves nothing.

Having said that you can fill grain with anything, it just takes longer if one is using a thin finish. If I wanted to fill oak however, and to avoid the problems of colouration that can occur with large amounts of grain filler, I would opt for a pumice fill. The so-called neutral grain fillers are a horrible ochre colour that can look like wood stopping if used "too much".
 
Chris, Alf

You know what, I decided to leap before getting any responses (I think I left it all of 60 secs :wink: ) and put a coat of oil on - looks fab - going to add maybe a couple more and then wax.

Chris - I know exactly what you mean about the neutra filler - its like stopping.

I'll let you know how I get on with the rest of the project.

Thanks

Tim
 
Tim..

if you wet sand with oil and wet n dry, the slurry generated will act as a pore filler with perfect colour match..
 

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