Can someone help.. I have just applied knotting fluid to a new pine floor....before the dye and yes the dye is not being taken up in the area of where the knotting fluid is.
What can I do ?
What can I do ?
problems with knotting fluid
- Thread starter SteveBlackburn
- Start date
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D
Deleted member 174758
Before starting this I'd suggest taking an offcut of flooring and applying knotting in the same way you did originally to about 1/2 of the offcut. Let this dry and then carry out the removal procedure on this to see if it works well enough. It's always a good idea to keep an offcut and try out your full finishing/refinishing programme on it before applying it to a real floor.
In reality knotting fluid is shellac dissolved in methylated spirits (NOT white spirits), so if you flood the area where the knotting was with meths that should re-dissolve the shellac fairly quickly and you'll be able to mop up the resulting fluid with cotton rag or kitchen roll. I'd suggest turning the heat off in that room before you do this as well as possibly opening the windows to cool the room down and make your job a bit easier otherwise the meths will evaporate before you can lift it and the dissolved shellac. Attack small areas at a time and mop-up the re-dissolved sealer quickly - even in cool places you need to work quickly. It may take several "treatments" to be somewhere near the point at which you can resand the affected areas of the floor and restain.
If the knotting has soaked so far into the grain on your test piece that it is still causing blotchiness, then the only solution will probably be to resand the floor in it's entirety before resealing it in its entirety with a very diluted "white" sanding sealant or white French polish (cut say 5:1 with meths) before applying a tinted varnish. Once sealed wood dye is often unsuitable because it cannot sink into the grain through the shellac
In reality knotting fluid is shellac dissolved in methylated spirits (NOT white spirits), so if you flood the area where the knotting was with meths that should re-dissolve the shellac fairly quickly and you'll be able to mop up the resulting fluid with cotton rag or kitchen roll. I'd suggest turning the heat off in that room before you do this as well as possibly opening the windows to cool the room down and make your job a bit easier otherwise the meths will evaporate before you can lift it and the dissolved shellac. Attack small areas at a time and mop-up the re-dissolved sealer quickly - even in cool places you need to work quickly. It may take several "treatments" to be somewhere near the point at which you can resand the affected areas of the floor and restain.
If the knotting has soaked so far into the grain on your test piece that it is still causing blotchiness, then the only solution will probably be to resand the floor in it's entirety before resealing it in its entirety with a very diluted "white" sanding sealant or white French polish (cut say 5:1 with meths) before applying a tinted varnish. Once sealed wood dye is often unsuitable because it cannot sink into the grain through the shellac
A trick I saw a restorer use to remove old shellac French polish on furnture was to apply the meths fairly liberally, and then put a piece of plastic sheet over the area, which gives the meths a chance to dissolve the shellac by stopping it evaporating. Never actually tried it myself but it seemed to work OK for him.
D
Deleted member 174758
Aged shellac built-up over many layers (typical French polish is 6 to 12 layers) will take a lot more meths and a lot more time to dissolve it because there is a far greater solids build up. In this instance the timber is new and there is only one layer of sanding sealer (which itself is normally fairly low in solids) so the trick of using a plastic sheet is probably somewhat superfluous. Another reason for lowering the temperature to reduce the evaporation of meths is that meths is highly flamable and reducing the volume you get in the air in the room as well as opening a window to ventilate is also advisable of safety grounds (as of course is not smoking, not using electrical equipment, etc)
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And don't go to the pub after work I did a similar thing in an unventilated environment and went to the pub afterward's it took me a very long time to get home
A valid point about the many layers needing extra time. Old shellac gets hard and usually has wax on it as well, so the meths would need all the help it can get. I hadn't really thought about that.
Harbourwoodwork. I always take a long time to get home if I go to the pub!
Harbourwoodwork. I always take a long time to get home if I go to the pub!
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