Once Again...

[Victor]

Sorry to keep bringing this up, but after all this time I'm still having problems with lifting grain. I sanded and varnished some old cedar and mahogany the other night, and the next day it was rougher than when it first came off the boat. What's annoying about this is I know there must be a trick to this, I just haven't figured it out yet.

? - If you use, say, acetone to lift the grain and keep sanding it down, will it eventually stay down, or will it keep rising til you're left with nothing but sawdust?

? - Would it be better to just let it rise and varnish it repeatedly, then sand down the varnish?

Sealers help but not completely. I'm trying not to use CPES for this.

[ssor]

You have two distinctly different woods there. Cedar will get fuzzy when you sand it but H. mahogany doesn't in my experience.sanding cedar and then sealing with a thin coat of varnish letting it dry and then sanding off the fuzz usually serves for me, sometimes I must repeat the thin coat and sanding routine. I am sure others have used different methods to conquer this problem.

[paladin]

sounds like sanding fir all over again....
don't sand......after the material is cut to shape witha plane or other tool, scrape it...then add a coat of sealer such as CPES or similar..
then use very fine finish paper on the sealer...carefully.....then varnish....works fer me....