Raising grain with Acetone.

[Artificer]

Folks, I don't know if you ever heard of this, but I stopped raising grain on stock wood with a damp cloth and hair dryer a couple decades ago and completely switched over to using acetone to raise the grain.  That way, you never have to worry about getting the stock dry enough or too dry with a hair dryer.  It is also much, much faster than using a damp cloth. 

The way you do it is put on some chemical or even kitchen gloves, wad up some paper towels and press the wad against the acetone can spout and tilt it so it wets the wad of paper towels.  Wipe that on the stock and wet the wad again as you work over the stock.  The first caution is you need to be in a well ventilated spot and/or have a fan blowing across the area you are working to blow the vapors away in an enclosed shop.  The second caution is you don't want to get an open flame close enough to set the acetone on fire.  So don't light a cigarette and touch the flame to the acetone soaked wad.   

Besides raising the grain and evaporating so quickly, the beauty of acetone is it leaves absolutely nothing in the way of any kind of chemical or residue on the stock. 

I have used acetone on walnut, birch, beech, maple, pine, oak and other woods and there was never an ill effect of any kind.  Thought some of you might like to try it.
Gus

[Nate McKenzie]

Rubbing alcohol also works well and quickly for raising the grain. I spray it on with a spray bottle.

[Dennis Glazener]

I use rubbing alcohol, works good and drys fast.

In high school industrial arts our teacher showed us how to make a thin water based glue (I forget what type). You brushed it on, it raised the grain and when dry the thin glue stiffened the whiskers so they would be quickly removed by the sand paper. It seemed to work well.
Dennis
 

[James]

Just my 2-cents, acetone is not the safest thing to be sniffing.

[FRJ]

Just a reminder, rubbing alcohol contains oil and I would be cautious about using it on a stock that I was going to finish. Isopropyl Alcohol doesn't contain any oil but depending on % may contain water. I have a bottle of 70% that contains 30% water and a bottle of 99% that has no more than 1% water. I'd be using the 99% to raise the grain on a stock. Frank

[Jim Kibler]

While these may raise the grain to some degree, I would expect it to not be a thorough as water alone.  If you choose to raise the grain I don't think you can beat plain old water.  I believe the combination of the water and heat is important in raising the grain as completely as possible.

[Jim Filipski]

Jim You are right on there. Water is what will raise grain properly.
Maybe the solvent guys should do a test. Raise with alcohol or worse yet high evap solvents like acetone. Do it all you want then put on some water and hit it with heat and you will be right back to the start with tons of whiskers
Jim Kibler is correct
Jim

[Artificer]

I do not understand, and have never found, how water and dryer heat is going to raise grain better than acetone unless you wet the stock with water so much it actually swells the wood fibers well below the surface layer.  Actually, if one wishes to, one can wet the stock with acetone as much or more than water and it quickly and completely evaporates.  I am not even sure how one could do a valid test that water and dryer heat causes more surface grain to raise than acetone.

Now I realize that acetone won't raise wood like steaming does, but whiskering the wood with water and dryer heat won't do that either, but I'm sure most everyone realizes that.  

I found it interesting FRG mentioned Isopropyl Alcohol that only contains 1% water.  Might try that in the future if I can find some with that low of water content.
Gus

[Jim Filipski]

Humidity is composed of water vapor ( not acetone vapor) Raise the grain & sand as many times as you want to get the surface smooth with acetone. Take that nice smooth piece of wood and place it outside in a humid environment for a few days. It will be prickly
Water reacts with the wood differently & heating it is sort of like raising the humidity of the woods environment.
What happens in nature.  

If Mad Monk is out there maybe he can explain it on a molecular level. Water molecules are larger then the solvent molecules displacing more wood fiber

Jim

[Robert Wolfe]

I don't believe that pure (or 99%) alcohol will raise the grain in any significant way. With drugstore alcohol, which is generally 30% water,  it is the water that raises the grain. Think about your alcohol based stains - they don't raise the grain.

[westerner]

I stopped raising the grain and whiskering many years ago. On Walnut that is.  I cant see the point. I would rather glue the whiskers down in place.  The only time I could detect whiskers was when I wetted the stock and let it dry. Never noticed them when applying the finish. I use spar varnish. 

                Joe.

[tallbear]

I have to agree with Jim and Jim here.I do not believe you can raise the grain as well with any kind of solvent as well as you can with water .If you aren't raising the grain completely why bother.When I studied carving with Gary Brumfield we raised the grain with water and dried it with a torch which is the method I use today.It was Garys belief that the steam created with the torch raised the grain the maximum amount.
I also believe that it's the water in the rubbing alcohol that's doing the grain raising.Are not LMF's alcohol based stains sold as non grain raising!!

Mitch

[bgf]

For me, the determining factor is that I can get water for almost nothing (it is free if I use my cistern, but I can be lazy), but acetone costs money .

[LRB]

  But Articifer, that's not the way it was done way back. Not PC. They were scraped which doesn't require grain raising. If you must raise the grain, use only rain water. Just joking pard. Use whatever works for you, and gets the job done the way you like it.

[Pete G.]

Seems like this may be one of those things like patch lube or cleaning solvent. Everybody has something that works for them but doesn't seem to work for somebody else.

[tallbear]

Unless I missed something this was never a disscusion about what was HC/PC but what works best.Also I do a lot more finish scrapeing than sanding ,but the stock still needs to be whiskered.

Mitch

[Mad Monk]

Humidity is composed of water vapor ( not acetone vapor) Raise the grain & sand as many times as you want to get the surface smooth with acetone. Take that nice smooth piece of wood and place it outside in a humid environment for a few days. It will be prickly
Water reacts with the wood differently & heating it is sort of like raising the humidity of the woods environment.
What happens in nature.  

If Mad Monk is out there maybe he can explain it on a molecular level. Water molecules are larger then the solvent molecules displacing more wood fiber

Jim

Whisker?

Burnish!!!


E. Ogre

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

yep, and with a shellac sealer.....what whiskers?

[chuck-ia]

I have used water and rubbing alcohol, never heated the stock though. Learn something new everyday. chuck