Raise the grain on unbent pieces?

[Brinkman]

I'm building a ship and most pieces are bent in hot water, so the grain is raised and then sanded smooth. I will later on stain everything with oil based paints.

 

I guess I should I also put the pieces I don't paint in water to raise the grain to prevent it from happening after painting when it will be hard to sand?

 

PS: I guess you want to know that I'm using pear wood.

Edited July 27, 2021 by silverman834

[Roger Pellett]

I wouldn’t put them in water.  Instead, I’d wipe the planked hull down with a damp cloth to raise the grain, then sand.  This is an old gunsmith’s trick; wetting wooden gunstocks and rubbing them down until the grain ceases to raise.

 

Roger

[turangi]

I normally seal the wood with a dilute oi based varnish or shellac then sand smooth. It prevents raised grain especially if you are finishing using water based paint or water based clear finish.

[Bob Cleek]

It's the water that raises the grain. No water, no raised grain. 

 

Bend your wood using dry heat. A bending iron is good if you have one. If not, a small clothes iron works well. A piece of metal pipe of suitable diameter can be heated from the inside with a torch and used by bending the wood against it. Some have even found good success by using a microwave oven to heat the wood. Use the forum search engine to see various dry heat methods. Review Chuck Passaro's great video turtorials on plank bending in the resources section under the "More" drop down menu at the top of the forum page.

 

Water based paints run the risk of raising wood grain if they are too thin because of their water content. If using water-based paints, prime the wood with thinned shellac as mentioned above. Shellac will not raise the grain. it is thinned with alcohol. Oil-based paints will not raise wood grain. This is a significant advantage of oil-based paints, although it is a simple matter to prime wood for water-based painting using shellac which dries very quickly.

[Brinkman]

@Roger Pellett, @turangi and @Bob Cleek thank you for the responses! I couldn't remember the grain raising on my last model on the unbent pieces and of course it's as you said that oil paint doesn't do it.