Reply by botanist

I would test the roller on a piece of scrap first, just to make sure it works the way you want it to work. I’d hate to give you advice for something that would ruin your work. I’m curious if the paint raises the grain like water does. If so, you’d probably want to wet the piece with a damp rag, resand, and then prime and paint. If you’re thinking about white paint, use BIN by Zinsser, which is a shellac based primer that does a great job of blocking anything from the wood from bleeding through. Even if you’re not using white paint I would still use BIN for a couple of reasons. I was working on a hall bench for my wife between Thanksgiving and Christmas last year and didn’t want to deal with paint fumes inside from the primer but that caused another problem. It was 30 degrees F outside and I don’t have heated garage! Because the solvent in BIN is basically alcohol, it has a very wide range of temperatures at which it’s effective: 0 degrees to 90 degrees F. It also dries very quickly.