I just read this interesting sanding article.

https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/woodworking-tips-1210oct/tracecoat.html

 

Herb

Thanks, Herb. It's a great technique for a "Babbybutt" finish. Takes a bit more time but, really worth it. One or two of Charles Neal's videos goes into the process. He used to use the process in his previous job as an automotive finisher.

Just search YouTube for "trace coating". 

It does a beautiful job on mesquite, maple and, Walnut. Have not tried it on any soft woods.

Yes, I first heard of this from Charles Neil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni2Y3vMtUSU  Since he's in VA, maybe that's where this guy picked it up, too.

 

Charles apparently adapted this from auto body days https://thefinishingstore.com/blogs/news/finishing-nightmares

 

A lot of people use the dye, sand, re-dye as a way to pop figured wood, too. 

Thanks!

5 hours ago, kmealy said:

 

A lot of people use the dye, sand, re-dye as a way to pop figured wood, too. 

Charles discusses curly maple and other figured wood in one of his videos.

They are all worth a look.

My only problem with Charles, is well, you know - his pace is really, um, slow.   I find it more tolerable if I bump the the playback speed to 1.5x or 2x and turn on closed captions.

He (Neil) was trying to put together a PBS show (according to some posts over at Lumberjocks). Wonder if that ever took off.

3 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

He (Neil) was trying to put together a PBS show (according to some posts over at Lumberjocks). Wonder if that ever took off.

He says he's waiting on PBS to get their ducks in a row. 

Good luck on that one!

Yeah, I don't think he is all that put out. He wasn't overly eager to start with.