qt Zinsser 854 Clear SealCoat Universal Sanding Sealer

I recently purchased two matching antique bed frames made out of wood with a headboard and footboard each. They were quite dirty but otherwise in good shape. After cleaning them up, I wanted to restore the finish and add a layer of polyurethane for extra protection. After researching, I decided to start off with SealCoat since I did not know what the original stain or sealant was made of. I was so glad I found this product after searching "wood sealer" on Amazon, because you can't really find it in stores.This sealant goes on quite easily with a brush, and truly adheres to any surface, coating, or sealant. It also does a magical job of restoring a finish- my project was looking rough after a thorough clean with magic erasers, simple green, and a light sanding. After the first coat, any hazy spots, scratches, or weird water rings completely disappeared and it dried to a beautiful finish.I ended up doing two coats with a light sand (220 or finer) in-between coats. This SealCoat doesn't provide a super durable finish, so I opted to add two coats of water based polyurethane on top. The polyurethane adhered wonderfully to the SealCoat even without sanding. The project turned out great and I'm so happy I found this product which was very easy to use and produced an amazing result.

Difficult to find this locally

Couldn’t find in the home store Amazon it is!

Wearing as expected

I love this product. it has saved me more times than I can count. I use it as a blotch controller, a grain filler, a chatoyance enhancer (my favorite) use over BLO (boiled linseed oil) before a clear top coat. This can be used as a barrier between an oil finish and a water base finish once the oil has cured. I use this to seal MDF edges that can soak up many coats of paint. This even can be used as a polished top coat. But that's not recommended. From personal experience 3 coats is the max if your painting over it with water based or it will craze the top coat. I generally use 2 coats, first to raise the grain then sand with 180 knock it back smooth then second coat to smooth it out before a top coat. Everything sticks to it and vise a versa, that's the beauty of Seal Coat. Its almost magic in a can. Just don't lay it on too thick or it will craze.

So I've read many opinions of people "debunking" the use of dewaxed shellac as a sealer and explaining the product away as a solution in search of a problem. But after years of doing hobby woodworking projects, I wish I hadn't listened to them and tried this product first.It basically does two things for you. One is stabilizing the grain, closing small pores, and filling in minor scratches before final sanding / coating. It does the same job as a dedicated "grain sealer", except that it has a water-like consistency, so it can be applied very quickly with a brush, even to a fairly complex project without requiring meticulous application or time-consuming cleanup. On the flip side, if you need to deal with large, open grain (walnut, mahogany, red oak) and want mirror-like finish, a paste-type product can handle it in 2-3 coats, while SealCoat might need more work.Now, some folks don't seal at all, and just apply more coats of polyurethane, sanding in between. That's an OK strategy, but it takes much longer, because poly coats might need 6-24 hours before being safe to sand - whereas shellac is completely dry within 15-30 minutes or so. I attached photos of two quick projects - mahogany and walnut - finished in a matter of three hours with two coats SealCoat and some nitrocellulose lacquer. Before discovering SealCoat, that would have taken a lot more work.The second important role of dewaxed shellac is that it sticks to just about anything, including wood treated with tung or linseed oil - and then accepts just about anything on top, including water-based and oil-based polyurethanes. This means that a quick coat of shellac over existing finish is a great way to avoid fisheye issues and other problems with whatever you are putting on top.(By itself, shellac is not a particularly great finish for any project that is likely to see some abuse; it is easily damaged by solvents and heat.)

Rustoleum Zinsser 854 is the best prestain ever. I've been trying to stain pine baseboard using various stains. I've tried everything with little success and was about to just accept my best effort. I'm glad I tried this stuff first. Things I tried included many sanding combinations (best was 80 followed by 120 then 180). I tried with and without MinMax prestain and other prestains. That stuff is useless and just washes out the colors altogether. I tried water to open the pores in the wood. I tried Gel Stain. I tried everything. At best I got mediocre looking results.Then I tried the Zinsser 854 SealCoat Shellac as a prestain. I sanded by hand 80, 120, 180 grit 3M paper. Use sandpaper, not sanding sponges. When I used sponges, even though they claim to be 80, 120, 180 grit, the wood did not take the stain. Then apply a thin coat of Zinsser 854 diluted 1:1 with denatured alcohol with a brush. Don't apply a thick coat as instructed on the can. Just wet the brush a bit and make sure to cover the whole piece (it's almost clear, so it is easy to miss spots). I let it dry 30 minutes and applied Rustoleum Dark Walnut stain using a pad. Ignore the instructions on the can where it says to wipe on thick and wait 5 minutes. Wipe it on and get it to the texture you want right away. Other stains may work differently of course.After struggling for weeks I could not believe how beautiful the results were. In the picture, the top piece is the one with the Zinsser 854 Shellac prestain and the bottom is my previous best effort. Both pieces came from the same piece of pine baseboard. I almost did not want to apply a poly sealer, bit I applied the Rustoleum Polyurethane Satin and it got even more beautiful.Why this stuff is not available in stores is a mystery (the Shellacs there don't work for this purpose), but amazon to the rescue.