: Bless You..!!

: Never read any books on finishes... I learned from a guy that should have
: Written a book. He MADE his own stains and finishes. Was in his late 60's
: and into his 70's when I knew him. He spent his whole life in
: woodworking..

: You CAN.. trust me.. if you're used to using natural materials you can see a
: colored finish from a mile away..

: I've seen and used a couple of things like this and the problem is... it
: tends to mask the actual wood grain and you end up seeing brush strokes
: instead of the natural wood grain.

: What the Alcohol / Shellac does it soak into the soft grain and not in the
: harder grain. This tends to keep areas with softer grain/wood from soaking
: up more stain and showing as darker.. I'm a wood freak... I want to see
: the natural grains and I don't like covering them up with solid finishes (
: colors ). When the wood is sanded, you have actual wood on the surface for
: the epoxy to adhere to. Whereas.. with those cover stains, you are trying
: to get epoxy to stick to the finish... not near as reliable... or
: atractive...

: I do not know if you can

: I still think you'll have a problem with those as it's on the surface only
: and when you sand to get a bite for the epoxy, you are going to take off
: the stain to a certain extent.. Besides... it's not that I'm trying to
: stain the wood.. I'm not.. I just want to eliminate the darker 'soft-wood'
: areas and the hard areas around the knots ( if any ). The Shellac /
: alcohol mixture does NOT stain the wood... it soaks in clear and
: eliminates the darkening of areas causeing blotchiness..

: What I have heard is that the epoxy oak combination is an acid/alkaline combo
: and they neutralize the bond.. Poly is a totally different chemical
: composition and therefore doesn't have the same reaction.
: By washing the wood with Acetone or ?? you basically eliminate the acidity
: from the surface the epoxy will be bonded to. So.. that should help in the
: bonding...

: Well, I tried pulling my samples apart with light pressure and they all seem
: to bond pretty well. I intend on doing more tests later and will not pull
: them all apart until it gets warmer and sunny around here, so I can test
: the Shellac to see if it softens under the epoxy/glass combo. I don't
: think this will be an issue since my surface is actually sanded wood that
: the epoxy is bonded to... and not the shellac. When I finish the tests,
: probaly in the spring, I will do a write-up and give what results I come
: up with...

: Thanks for your comments...

: Rehd
: Fresburg, Calif.

Redhd,

I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Bob Flexner's book. There is so much misunderstanding and misinformation in the world of wood finishes that I have seen both online and published in magazines (since he does not address epoxies, I will have to do some investigating on my own). Case in point, you believe that the epoxy will be sticking to the wood fibers and not to the shellac. That is not the case, unless you completely sand off the shellac, the epoxy will be, at least partially, adhering to the shellac because the shellac, like all other film finishes, seals the wood. When you partially sand through the shellac, you will have a situation where the best analogy to use is to picture a well worn Circulon pan. The teflon coating may be worn off the top of the ridges in the pan, but the teflon coating between the ridges remains intact. Not to say that epoxy won't adhere well in this situation, it may very well work great, however, as long as there is shellac still adhering to the wood, the wood is sealed and the epoxy is adhering to the shellac, not the wood.

Not having worked with WRC, I am unsure what you meant by the blotchiness, I assumed you were attempting to stain it, for whatever reason. I am familiar with blocthiness in regard to staining. Since you are attempting to reduce the blotchiness in unstained wood, about the only thing that comes to mind is to try "natural" color stain that I have seen. I never thought there was much sense to staining something "natural", but it may work at reducing the blotchiness. The only other item I can think of is a sanding sealer, which I believe is nothing more than a very thinned shellac, which is what you're doing. Even with sanding sealers, the wood is sealed.

Paul