How to get this finish?

[magicniner]

Commercial finishing processes rarely involve much manual work, if you use a self levelling primer after sealing you will have to sand rough areas after sealing but you won't need them perfectly smooth, experimentation will determine how smooth you need to go to achieve what you need ;-)

I've achieved good finishes on wood sealed with an alcohol based automotive sealer, U-Pol's version of this is Barcoat, others are available. Snother option if you want to do more sanding is to use a Polyester based spray filler, U-Pol's version of this is Reface, it sands very easily and doesn't clog paper like hand mixed polyester fillers,

- Nick