Grain Filler, Sanding Sealer,stain

[stoo]

Ready to start on the back. It's mahogany and will need its grain filled. My concern is with the end grain in the cut aways. It looks to me that it will absorb more stain than the flat sides and back. Will the sanding sealer make the staining more uniform? Will the grain filler help here too? BTW what is the proper order for these 3 products to be applied?

Thanx all

stew

[Drak]

If you understand your products and compatability, you can mix your stain right into your pore filler so you stain and pore fill in the same easy step.

I don't use sanding sealer, but it normally would go on top of the stain/pore filler.

You -can- use a -thin- washcoat first to control stain absorption, but you're getting into a tricky scenario I would rather avoid.

Gibson used to do all the old Les Paul and SG backs with the stain mixed into the pore filler, so I wouldn't worry about absorption on the sides, it worked fine for them.

Also, if you want to decrease stain absorption, sand your wood finer. The finer you sand it, the less absorption you'll get, so if you wanted to, you could try sanding your sides up to a higher grit. I'm not recommending you do that, but you can give it a shot if you wish.

Also, -gel- stains have a more even, less absorbing characteristic to them, they don't penetrate as deeply as a water-based anilyne dye would. That's why you never see gel stains used on figured Maple tops, since the very thing you're trying to do is -enhance- the grain. Gel stains don't do that. They stain everything very evenly.