A couple questions regarding finishing exotic colored and/or oily/waxy woods

[Bjorn.LaSanche]

I am about to start my V project and I have decided that I am going to use the piece of Bloodwood I have for the body wings, as the oxidized board has darkened to a color similar to the old late 60s cherry color Gibson used, except a little leaning a touch browner, but not brown enough to warrant any color addition before just using a clear in the finish after grain filling and top coat. 
 

Which brings me to my questions.  
1.) Have any of you used heat stabilization when using bloodwood to set the color?  
I ask because I have recently seen a guy on YouTube use heat to stabilize and bring out excellent color to Purple Heart. The Snekker Show is the channel, here is one of the videos. 

Seems putting the wood in a 350 degree oven for an hour works best for the best color as well as stabilizing the color throughout the piece. He shows several pieces of wood that were heat modified and unused yet in the area of 8-10 years old which have not darkened yet. I plan on seeing if my local supply store has any bloodwood pieces I can pick up to experiment on before I cut into mine.  Just for fun, I am going to take a piece of cocobolo I have to heat modify it today and see what happens.  I’ll report back with findings. 
 

2.) I plan on finishing my V with a gloss coat, so to assist in UV protection, what would be a good base coat you guys would suggest to use?  I have heard that using an evaporative base coat is the way to go ( de waxed shellac or Spar Urethane have been suggested). I have also read about General Finishes Arm-R Seal varnish is another excellent varnish to use as a base coat to use to help with UV protection. I’m leaning towards this route. Now a topcoat from here is a little perplexing in what can be used with what.  I was looking at a 2K type rattle can clear gloss over the base coat. Can these two type finishes be used with each other?  Without problems?  A topcoat of at least 2mil once done allows for excellent UV protection if using modern automobile polyurethane as per reading data sheets of several 2K products (as well as calling a couple auto body shops and simply asking). That’s 2mil after all sanding.  
 

3.) please tell me about the Armor-All hack and explain the schedule for it?  I know you use the original type product and it’s applied pre grain fill or post grain fill, it is applied pre base coat. That’s as far as I have been able to figure out.  The Armo-All just adds another layer of UV protection. 
 

thank you greatly in advance for any suggestions and/or answers to my questions. In advance.  If any of you have any of these oily/waxy exotic colored woods and have a few pieces you can experiment with. See if heat modification as shown in the above video helps or hinders the color.  Please don’t use anything ultra expensive. Was thinking more along the lines of using more of the commonly used fancy woods.  Maybe we can create a type of database for the group tha will help alleviate shying away from using interesting wood because of what it would look like years in the future.  

[komodo]

Have never heard of heat stabilization before. I saw your other post on the cocobolo, and struggled a little on what the heat is actually doing? My last neck was solid coco and after sanding and a couple coats of oil, it looks like your last pictures. Is the heat supposed to keep it lighter and not darken further? I might be able to try something along these lines with bloodwood, coco, etc, but probably not anytime soon. I did a bunch of white oak once and my wife nearly killed me for using the oven like that. Stunk up the house real bad (I thought it smelled great).

Shellac is pretty much a bullet proof undercoat. It sticks to everything and everything sticks to it. Don't know about the 2K question, but will say take extra special precautions with that. It will send you to the ER quick, and there isn't a lot they can do about it. It's like spraying super glue in your lungs.

Also never heard of the Armor all thing? I'd be leery of any silicones in it. That would be a major issue.