I have now completed the grain fill. What you seen the pic, in the order of application is three coats of stain, then 3 coats of 1lb shellac, with 4 coats of grain filler on top. 5 coats of grain filler in a few places. may even use a little more as things progress if I see anywhere that it is needed. I don't think the shellac changed the color much, but three coats almost (but not quite) eliminated color lift using the grain filler. In a couple of places i used a little of the red stain with the Aqua Coat to enhance a couple of lighter areas. Mostly I just used it clear, however.
He got impressive results attempting a similar color after using the gran fill first, then the spirt based dye stain. As bad as my test results were using water based dye stain, his were good using spirt based stain. Simon used the the transparent grain filler the way most people seem to use opaque filler, and in fact he dyed his filler black.
Aqua Coat does not really feel like any filler I have used before. It feels more like a kind of a gel top coat that you put on with a credit card rather than a brush or pad. As it dries it is in places flat and in others glossy. In consistency it is somewhere between gell and teeny tiny tapioca balls. In the third and fourth coats there were places where it looked a bit cloudy after being worked in, but when it dries it is absolutely transparent, without any yellowing. This stuff "feels" like it is somewhere between a clear coat and a grain filler. The mfg says that it requires at least three coats of top coat to seal, but it is enough like top coat that I have been able to use it for very small top coat repairs. Once sanded and polished it is so transparent that I can't find the repair I did on a maple neck with it.
Now that I have it, I would definitely use it to fill under a solid color, and would be tempted to try it with a non-dye type stain. I am not sure I could justify the expense to buy it new though, unless I wanted it to go over a color.
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