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Mahagony glimmer

1K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  difalkner 
#1 ·
Refinished mahagony table. Stripped with citristrip. Wiped with mineral spirits. Sanded to 150. General finishes gel stain. Same table from 2 different ends in direct sun. Is sun reflecting in grain ?
 

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#2 ·
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That looks like either something whitish in the pores or open pores reflecting in the sun light. Do you have a close-up photo of the pores from the angle in the bottom photo?

David
 
#4 ·
I'm having difficult attaching photo, but I believe the issue is with light reflecting in pores. There does not appear to be anything in them. Are they likely to fill and appear better when I apply the GF performance top coat layers? Can a wood filler be applied on top of the GF gel stain ?
 
#6 ·
Difficult to tell without being there. Sometimes white streaks in the grain is a result of a chemical reaction with the finishing products. If you can wipe it with mineral spirits and the white temporarily goes away another coat of finish might make it go away if you are using a solvent based finish.

Next time you use paint stripper rinse the wood with lacquer thinner. They put wax in paint strippers to retard evaporation and lacquer thinner would rinse cleaner. I had an employee one time fail to get the stripper rinsed off well and I sprayed it with lacquer and it took two weeks to dry. Normally it dries in 10 minutes. Anyway the chemicals in paint stripper can cause all kinds of problems.
 
#11 ·
Mahogany is a very porous wood with open grain. You have a few choices - spray it with satin, rub it to a satin finish making sure you also are rubbing in the pores, or fill the pores for that piano/guitar filled finish.

If you spray it with satin you'll still get some of that look with the pores reflecting light. But it will likely help get you closer to the look you want.

If you rub the existing finish using pumice or rottenstone and a piece of felt then you can get a nice look to it, assuming you're proficient at the rubbing process. If you're not very proficient at the rubbing process then the surface will end up satin and the pores will stand out even more. The good thing about this is you can just repeat the process until you get it where you like the finish. If it still doesn't look like you want then just spray it again and repeat the process. You can use other methods for rubbing but pumice and rottenstone work well if done correctly.

If you choose to fill the pores then do some searches on guitar finishing and filling the pores of Mahogany. There are dozens of methods and you'll just have to choose the one you like.

David
 
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