Tried using pine for a kitchen table and the knots turned into a nightmare after 3 months

I built a kitchen table for my sister back in June using some cheap pine from Lowes, thinking I'd save her some money. I filled the knots with shellac and sanded everything smooth, but after about 3 months the knots started bleeding through the paint, leaving these yellow stains. She called me last week all upset, and I had to drive over and look at it. Now I'm wondering if I should have used a knot sealer instead of just shellac, or maybe I should have gone with poplar from the start. Some guys at the lumber yard said shellac should be enough if you do two coats, but obviously it wasn't. Has anyone else had pine knots wreck a project after a few months, or did I just use the wrong stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek_ramirez15d ago

Man I feel your pain, I tried pine for a "quick" bookshelf once and three months later it looked like a leopard puked on it. Guess my "two coats of shellac" was more like "wishful thinking.

terry_barnes15d ago

Pile right on, @derek_ramirez. That pine stuff is a sponge for whatever you put on it. I tried to "quick stain" a pine nightstand once and ended up with this weird tiger stripe effect that looked like an old cat dragged its tail across it. Ended up having to sand the whole thing back to bare wood and start over with a grain filler. Took me a whole weekend to fix a job I thought would take two hours. Pine doesn't forgive you when you rush it, that's for damn sure.