Hello.

I recently had to refinish some pieces because my precat blushed.It has happened after wet sanding an open pore wood filled with timbermate. I probably did not let the water dry enough because some small white dots appeared over the wood pores.

On other pieces it has happened on non visible places so I did not refinish them but tried scratching those white clouds over the pores and it chipped all the way to the died wood.

Is it a bad case of blushing or is the chipping flaking over the whites spots a symptom of an other problem. keep in mind that this is after only a few hours after the last coat. Thia precat is supposed to have a 30 day to full catalysis delay.

also is recoating too son really problematic or does it just increase dry time since lacquer is supposed to burn in

thanks

Ps this finish system was tested on other furniture with no problem

View higher quality, full size image (1677 X 2981)

I don't like the idea of the Timbermate, but no proof that's the issue.

thanks for your answer rich

I know timbermate is not necessarily the best grain filler but if it is incompatible with precat wouldn't that means that some of my hole repairs would not hold up (I mean the lacquer on top of it)?

regardless of the filler does blushing reduce adherence or am I facing a completely different issue.

Pascal,
The white spots in the grain are where the still wet filler dried and shrank back. In doing so it pulled away from the underside of the dry layer of coating. The white you see is the space left between the filler and coating.

RonB

omg ron!

I think you nailed it but this had me wondering why is this happening like 10 days after I filled wouldn't the fille have finished drying/shrinking by then?

I am beginning to think about redoing all my finishing routine and use a proper grain filler.

and as a bonus question do vinyl sealer improve adhesion? as of now I dye bare wood, washcoat with lacquer then pigment stain. I am beggining to worry that the stain is acting more like a glaze than a stain and that could cause my adhesion problem.

could replacing the lacquer washcoat with a vinyl washcoat, pigment stain then seal with vinyl result in better adhesion

Pascal,
With your finish schedule and looking closer at where you scratched the finish off; it appears that the coating scratched off down to your wash coat. Now I don't think the filler had anything to do with it.

What pigmented stain did you use?
Did you wipe off the pigmented stain well or did you leave some on and kind of "feathered it in" to even out the color?

RonB

Use timbermate daily in a large production shop... zero adhesion issues... I've got money on the pigment stain over your washcoat and under your topcoat is your issue.... Heavy pigment sandwiched between layers like that is asking for adhesion issues and can scratch off easily with a fingernail.

thanks everyone for your responses.

Now I can apply the stain directly to bare wood but how can I limit blotching without a washcoat.

Some have sugested using a vinyl sealer as a washcoat and as a sealer coat after the wiping stain.

the wiping stain I use is mohawk wich is ready to topcoat in 30 min. the tech support told me that the washcoat is ok but did not specify the product to use.

I should also add that I encountered the same problem when applying stain to bare wood. ( even more so when using gel stain wich would make the lacquer peel with a slight touch of a finger nailL) it is like of this precat is made to go over BARE wood (no stain/Dye/filler)

my answer to your question about adhesion is NO a blush will not effect adhesion. however, these are all very good observations. for myself i only use DAILYS filler and complete each step with real shellac about a 1.5lb cut using the highest proof denatured alcohol possible.
since the synthesizing of so many materials shellac has been molested more than others.
this simple material still does more that any other substitute, make your own it is easy and cost effective, call the Shellac Shack to find out more than you want.
food for thought. thanks for reading. rick m

This is not blush in the traditional sense, which is typically caused by humidity or a bad mix of finish and thinners or other additives.

This looks like a straight up adhesion problem, which usually shows up as white areas where the clearcoat is lifting from the surface. You can test it by doing a standard adhesion test with cross-hatching and tape. If it's bad enough, tape alone will lift the clearcoat off.

If you're using oil based stain, I'd look there first. Could be your washcoat is too heavy to allow the stain to penetrate completely, or you're not wiping enough of it off during application.

Use process of elimination on some sample pieces to figure this out.

Cheers,
Pat