Filling the pores in White Oak

[affyx]

Here's a detail pic from some QSWO I'll be using for the top of a little cabinet.

Open pores galore!

I will be staining this a medium brown (Minwax Early American 230).

Any recomendations for filling the pores before finishing?

I prefer (i.e. can handle) solutions that are easy and cheap!

[cabinetman]

What works best is a Paste Wood filler like this. It's also called a "grain filler". Not to be confused with wood putties.

[affyx]

What works best is a Paste Wood filler like this. It's also called a "grain filler". Not to be confused with wood putties.

Thank you Cabinet Man!

[Tarhead]

For cheap and easy here is my suggestion:
I would use regular wallboard spackling(cheap, probably already have some in your fix-it closet...if not <$1.50 for a small container) tinted with brown acrylic paint (cheap, get it in the craft section of your closest Walmart) close to the color of the non-grain part of the wood (easy...doesn't have to be exact, just close). Slop it on, use a squeegee diagonally to the grain to get it into the grain, scrub off the excess with a piece of burlap across the grain, let it dry an few hours and sand level with 220 grit sandpaper. With Oak I would repeat at least once and more if not level enough. If you want the surface flat but with accentuated grain make the spackling color as dark as the grain.
Mark

[affyx]

For cheap and easy here is my suggestion:
I would use regular wallboard spackling(cheap, probably already have some in your fix-it closet...if not <$1.50 for a small container) tinted with brown acrylic paint (cheap, get it in the craft section of your closest Walmart) close to the color of the non-grain part of the wood (easy...doesn't have to be exact, just close). Slop it on, use a squeegee diagonally to the grain to get it into the grain, scrub off the excess with a piece of burlap across the grain, let it dry an few hours and sand level with 220 grit sandpaper. With Oak I would repeat at least once and more if not level enough. If you want the surface flat but with accentuated grain make the spackling color as dark as the grain.
Mark

Great idea - I think I will try it. I want to keep some grain and am not looking for a mirror finish - so this sounds perfect. Thanks!

[Tarhead]

Oh...I forgot the usual caveat:

Do your complete schedule (including the oil finish) on scrap first to make sure it will give you the results you want.

Mark

[JimD]

I never fill the pores of oak. I use 3-5 coats of finish to seal the surface but I let the pores be fully visible. Works fine for us. 3 coats of thick poly are usually enough but I have started spraying Resisthane and it is thinner so I used 5 coats on the last oak project where I used Resisthane. They dry in an hour so the main extra time is cleaning the gun. I finished the kitchen table we use every day with 3 coats of oil based poly and it is still fine 20 years later.

Depends on whether you want durability or a smooth surface.

Jim

[scmhogg]

JC,

I finished a table top made of Australian Lacewood, which is almost as porous as oak. I made a slurry by sanding with 320 grit and and Danish oil. I let the slurry dry and sanded the excess off.

Steve

[gwyneth]

With a lot of art and papermaking supplies around the house, as well as a lot of somewhat scrungy oak and plywood (a variegated assortment) I've been experimenting and collecting ideas (Jeffrey Schronce gave an excellent explanation about water-based commercial grain fillers on oak a few months ago).

Fine Woodworking had an article a few years ago that described two homemade grain fillers. One involved pouring boiled linseed oil over the surface, wiping it in, then sprinkling about a teaspoon of fine pumice per square ft. over it and working the mixture in. More oil if it looks chalky. Wipe smooth (some very open-grained woods may need a second application) and let dry 72 hours. If using waterbased finish, should seal with dewaxed 2 lb-shellac.

The other: mix up some plaster of paris and work into the grain, doing small sections at a time because it dries very quickly. Wipe off excess with damp cloth. Dry all overnight, sand and don't panic because it looks white. Apply boiled linseed oil which turns it transparent. Color can be added at either stage. To emphasize grain pattern, add water-soluble dyes, artists' acrylic, or water-based pigment to the plaster. To dye both the linseed oil and wood, add artists' oil paint, Japan colors, or apply wiping stain. Also should be sealed with shellac if final finish is water-based.

Another recipe I picked up somewhere: mix pumice with shellac and work up a slurry as you apply it. Rub in diagonally/cross-grain, let dry.

One of my successful experiments, on very rough construction-type plywood that didn't look like pine (no noticeable pattern, just yellowish) involved diluting a commercial craft product called "Paperclay" .

That's an extremely misleading name as its ingredients are wood pulp, volcanic ash, and starch (quite different from other commercial modeling compounds). What prompted me to try it was looking at the MSDF for a water-based grain filler sold by Rockler: wood pulp, pumice, cellulose ethers (that's shorthand for variants of methylcellulose or hydroethylcellulose: the former is also known as 'cellulose wallpaper paste', so the starch in the Paperclay serves the same function for binding/adhesion.)

In any case, I thinned a chunk of the Paperclay with a lot of water to make it the consistency of cream and have used it very successfully on the crappy plywood. Its whitish gray color turns light golden with shellac on top and the final appearance of the plywood is smooth and blond, like Danish modern furniture of the 50s.

The idea of the pumice in any of these mixtures is to abrade the wood so the resulting slurry mixes in the wood dust to fill the pores.

[affyx]

Thanks!

Thank you all for your suggestions! I still have probably a week before I have to decide which way to go. I'll post the completed project here.

[Russianwolf]

I'm a fan of the danish oil sanding slurry method myself. you get a perfect match and it's easy to do. I would go ahead and stain first, then use the danish oil and sand. this way the slurry will already have the stain in it.

you have to sand after you stain anyway.