Mike
I have tried it on a number of test pieces and would suggest you do the same on pieces of the exact wood you will be using. On end grain I found a pre-treat with accelerator and a short wait before applying the SG worked very well.
On fine grained stuff I found that it was best to just coat it and let it set up on its own. In between the extremes I would tend toward a pre-treat on more porous stuff to prevent using a gallon of the stuff on a stock. On the whole I would tend not to pre-treat unless forced to.
On a one-inch cube I have measured shrinkage up to .015, AFTER a surface film, so shrinkage is real and sizeable.
I liked the luster I got on small sample pieces with no other finish on top. Dead-smooth eggshell with 1200 wet-or-dry, wet, followed by rottenstone and linseed oil and then rub the oil off as completely as possible... it really blew my dress up!
Hope this helps... Would love to learn what you find as I have not yet developed the courage to go that route <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
art
