Can you avoid the pore filling step and go right into the french polishing by getting the wood to a shine via cabinet scrappers or gradual high grit sanding?
You can do that absolutely. The pumice is the traditional way of doing it. Pumice is an abrasive, so its really the sandpaper minus the paper. When you rub it on the surface you are basically still using sandpaper just without the paper. A friend of mine french polishes with a Festool palm sander 400 grit paper, and he splashes denatured alcohol on the surface to prevent corning and create his slurry. Very high tech, and much faster. Makes me wish I had a $800 sander and vac too. lol
The only issue with with that plan is that neither of them actually fills the holes so they are level with the surface. Though 99% of the surface will be very smooth after sanding and scraping, the holes (pores) will still be there, and will still reflect light poorly once the final polish is applied. It will look good for sure, but not a completely flat mirror finish, which is what most french polish users are going for.
You may inadvertently remove stain from the surface when you wet sand with the oil after staining. If you want the grain filled, stain first, then fill the grain with a grain filling product. After that is all sanded level, then top coat with tru oil. You fill second because the stain will color the filler material much darker than the surrounding wood. Stain first, fill, then tru-oil or any other top coat.
Can you avoid the pore filling step and go right into the french polishing by getting the wood to a shine via cabinet scrappers or gradual high grit sanding?
You can do that absolutely. The pumice is the traditional way of doing it. Pumice is an abrasive, so its really the sandpaper minus the paper. When you rub it on the surface you are basically still using sandpaper just without the paper. A friend of mine french polishes with a Festool palm sander 400 grit paper, and he splashes denatured alcohol on the surface to prevent corning and create his slurry. Very high tech, and much faster. Makes me wish I had a $800 sander and vac too. lol
The only issue with with that plan is that neither of them actually fills the holes so they are level with the surface. Though 99% of the surface will be very smooth after sanding and scraping, the holes (pores) will still be there, and will still reflect light poorly once the final polish is applied. It will look good for sure, but not a completely flat mirror finish, which is what most french polish users are going for.
You may inadvertently remove stain from the surface when you wet sand with the oil after staining. If you want the grain filled, stain first, then fill the grain with a grain filling product. After that is all sanded level, then top coat with tru oil. You fill second because the stain will color the filler material much darker than the surrounding wood. Stain first, fill, then tru-oil or any other top coat.