CrystaLac® Clear Waterborne Wood Grain Filler

IMHO, the one-star folks should just stick with Minwax PolyShades and try not to go beyond that. Why? Because you test your finishing on scrap, NOT on your project! The tub I bought at the local Rockler's this winter came in about the consistency of pudding, not thin as others have suggested. Don't know if it's the 65 degree room or what. (Kudos to the Rockler folks: if the stuff EVER freezes. you will have a useless tub of artificial cottage cheese and the staff here opened every tub in stock to ensure mine was OK!) I used one of those cheap, china bristle brushes to swab on a thickish layer over my walnut crystal-stained maple test board. This dye is water-soluble and the Crystalac took a bit with it as I brushed, but not to an objectionable extent. If it had, I'd seal first with a thin wipe of shellac or solvent poly. In the time it took to clean up my brush, the stuff was just beginning to set up with a very mild latex paint odor. This was all of 3-5 minutes and I used a plastic scraper to level the material as it reached school paste consistency. Probably too much, I needed a second coat to get ready for a glassy surface. Sanded with 400, then a quick 800 pass. A few coats of Wipe-On Poly and it looks nice. Not the most chatoyance I've seen, dunno if that's the Crystalac, or poly instead of Maloof or Waterlox. Got plenty of scrap to work with, and patience as well.

I tried trowel, I tried scraper, I tried burlap. With the grain, against the grain, wiped off after 3 minutes. Nothing usable. Don't waste your time.

I didn't have much luck using a squeegee or putty type of knife so it sat on my shelf for quite awhile. One day I really needed something to fill in a top made of flat sawn Red Oak so I took it down, put on rubber gloves and applied it by hand and it worked like a charm. I put down large dollops and proceded to really work it in with my hands and then would smooth it out leaving a very light film all over and I then allowed it to dry over night. The next day I hit it with the sander and my pores were nicely filled. When I first used it I think I was filling the pores but when I would wipe it or use a squeegee to clean of the excess it would pull out the filler which is why this time I allowed it to completey dry and sanded off the excess.

Fills fairly well disregard the instructions with a couple of coats. Let dry a couple of days before sanding. The problem is, it's very hard to get a uniform color on unstained wood. When you use poly or shellac slightly amber toned over a sanded filled surface, the hard clear finish must be completely sanded off, or you get a blotchy color. However, that much sanding cuts back down to the filled grain. I've only had some success using this stuff with Crystalac's finish coat product. If you don't really need a water clear finish, use a conventional filler and save yourself a lot of grief.

The problem with this product is that you cannot trowel/squeege off all of the filler before you set it to dry, After it drys, by the time you sanded off all of the crystallac you have essentially sanded down to where the filler did not reach to begin with. Also if you don't get all of it off and I mean all, you will have imperfections in your final piece after finishing. Nice idea but not practically possible. Try calling the number on the label sometime if you want some added entertainment/frustration.