| Q: I prepped plywood, supposedly mahogany, with Varathane wood conditioner. I painted the first top, a small one, with an oil paint. This top was not prepped with the conditioner and after three coats it looks good. The other one I thought I would just leave alone, so I coated it with the conditioner. Now, I want to paint it. Do you think that it will be ok to paint with the oil based paint?
A: Yes, once the wood conditioner is dry, you can prime, then paint over it with oil based paint. By the way, you do know, don’t you, that wood conditioner is only a pretreatment to make stains color more uniformly on problem wood? You put it on, wipe it off, and stain while the wood is still wet. It is not a finish, a wood treatment or a pre-paint primer. Furthermore, while it is helpful on woods with a troublesome history for staining, such as softwoods and cherry, it is not ever necessary on mahogany.
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