: I talked to Larry at RAKA about stain and epoxy compatibility. According to
: him , there should be no problem as long as I use a water based stain. I
: tried a Min Wax water based stain on a piece of scrap and it looks pretty
: good. The only problem is that it raised the grain quite a bit. My
: question is - is the raised grain a problem? Since it is going to be
: epoxied and glassed, I would think that smoothness of the base wood
: shouldn't be that important. You could even make a case that the rougher
: surface would be better for adherence of the epoxy. I know that some of
: you have dealt with this before, so I would really value some
: recommendations based on experience.

: Thanks,

: Bill H.

One way to avoid the raised grain is to wet the virgin wood with a sponge then sand the raised grain, wet again and sand, wet again and sand and then finally apply the waterbased stain once the grain dosn't raise much upon wetting. It'll take a few trys. Try it on scrap to determine if it'll take 3 cycles or 10 to get the grain not to raise anymore..

Hope this works.

Pete czerpak albany, NY