Finishing Maple

[Alan Chase]

I am trying to refinish a maple end table. I had trouble trying to apply varnish, I kept getting "fish eyes". So I sanded the piece down to raw wood and reapplied stain. This helped but I'm still getting some fish eyes in the stain. I tried to seal with shellac but this doesn't allow the stain to penetrate deep enough to give me the color I want without vertually "painting" the piece with stain. Any suggestions?

[cbentzley]

Alan,

I believe you have silicone contamination. You can wash down your stripped surfaces with "silicone wash" which may help. I've had some for years which I purchased from Mohawk. I'm not sure of a good source now but I know it is available. When you apply your top coats, you may have to add fish eye remover depending on what your top coat is. Silicone isn't usually a problem with shellac.

Craig

[carheir]

I too have had that problem in the past and use a product I get from an auto supply house called "Smoothy".  It will prevent "fisheye".  If you used a stripper to clean down the furniture, depending on the product, may leave a wax residue which will give you the fisheye.  Washing it down with lacq. thinner will help get rid of any residue prior to staining or finishing.

Hope this helps

Mike