I’ve had some difficulty with bleeding on pine. I’ve tried varnish-based primers, but none seem to do the trick. Is there a product or technique that you could recommend?
Greg Williams: Traditionally, finishers have used a shellac or shellac based primer as a barrier coat to prevent, or at least slow down, the bleeding of pine into the coating material. You didn’t say what coating or finishing procedure you are using. If it is a paint, Zinsser’s BIN primer is the best I’ve found. If you are doing stain and lacquer, I’d use Zinsser’s “SealCoat” as the barrier coat.
Lee Grindinger: The pitch in pine tends to ooze. One of the steps in kiln drying pine is called “fixing the pitch”. Fixing the pitch entails raising the temperature to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes, though, not even this completely solves the problem. If the bleeding is not too severe, clean the resin with alcohol and seal with shellac. Shellac will resist this bleeding.
