Best stain killer for painting pine knots?

[Dutch]

I have a project to paint some pine that is somewhat knotty- looks like it is some old southern yellow pine to me- I know the knots and pitchy areas are going to want to bleed through - what is the best stain killer primer to use? Ive tried zinser and even water based Kilz in the past but they both had failures and bled throgh in spots - I dont want to go through that again.

Help :)

[Jay Greer]

The tried and true method of sealing knots is to coat them with several thin coats white shellac prior to applying white primer. Under normal conditions, the shellac will dry within a few minutes and can then be primed over.
Jay

[Kermit]

Yep, shellac's the ticket.

[TimH]

BIN makes a shellac primer...or is it Zissner?

[Ron Williamson]

BIN is Zinsser's shellac based primer.
I like epoxy for sealing knots.
R

[kc8pql]

I use BIN with good results. As noted above, it's shellac with white pigment.

[pcford]

sand, stain, fix with spray can varnish, varnish for mahogany.

softwoods do need a sealer. In the rare times I've stained it, I've used Benite, a local sealer.

[cathouse willy]

Not sure what your project is but another tack to take would be to finish the pine with an oil finish and let the knots show. After a bit in the sun it will develope a beautiful gold patina.

[GregH]

Like you said, the water-based Kilz is worthless, but the alchohol-based -(it's really pigmented shellac) works well