Pine ornament finishing

[Aggrajag]

I'm sure it's been asked before but I can't find it despite repeated searches both here and via Google.

I use a fair bit of untreated pine for scrollsawing, mainly because I've got access to loads of old pallets. I enjoy making ornaments and trinkets so I've cut loads of the stuff but I've never really concentrated on finishing anything because I've been put off from past failures. The problem I encounter, is that whenever I've applied anything the inside cuts swell up and go fuzzy / furry, which means I then have to carefully sand the entire thing again, inside and out, almost making the original cutting futile. (I guess this is an issue with all softwoods?)

I've bought sealant, wax, oils and sprays but after a few failures never got around to testing multiple scenarios to see which is easiest and most effective.

Can some expert please point me in the correct direction - what's the easiest way to make a pine ornament presentable?

Thank you.

 

[thetyreman]

it might be the quality of the pine you are using, I recently tried using the wood from an old palette and it was almost unusable compared to joinery grade pine that you can buy at a timber yard, maybe that's why it's so fuzzy and you are having problems.

 

[Aggrajag]

Like I say, it's fine until I apply some form of moisture which causes it to swell. I guess you're probably right though and I hadn't thought of that.

I recently made some 3d Robins from joinery grade pine - I'll have a test on those and see if they act the same.

 

[ED65]

I also think some of the trouble you're having may be the wood itself. I use a lot of reclaimed pine and other softwoods and there's definitely a difference in some of it, which I always put down to the amount of exposure the wood had before I got to it. Sometimes it's obvious how much weather the wood experienced as it'll be greyed, other times it looks fairly fresh but the spring wood is unbearably spongy.

So that may account for excessive furring up, but I think you have to resign yourself to some amount of this being inherent to applying a liquid finish. Even though it's always mentioned with respect to water-based finishes almost all finish will raise grain to some degree, although I would expect that paste wax will do this least and possibly not at all.