Finishes to avoid smearing exotics?

[Bombarde16]

Soliciting the collective wisdom of the forum as time ticks towards the final stages of the build challenge over at Sawdust Chronicles. I'm building a Scrabble board and am looking ahead to potential finishing pitfalls.

Conceptually, it's very much like a face grain chess board (not an end grain cutting board) just with more pieces and a more complicated pattern. This is only one half (OK, actually eight fifteenths) and it'll be flattened, sliced open, bookmatched and veneered onto a sheet of ply. Bits of panga panga, purpleheart, koa and padauk are scattered around a field of alternating maple and ash.

A ways back, I discovered the hard way that the pigment in padauk is alcohol soluble. My favorite shellac picked up a whole gob of pink and smeared it over onto some neighboring maple. Worse still, two of these species are new to me. Would an oil finish be safer? (But wait, these are known as "oily" woods, meaning the color would be even more likely to run?) Wax? If I can get the wood saturated with oil, would that prevent the pigment from bleeding into subsequent coats of shellac. It's a game board that'll see very mild use and I'm torn as to whether I even need to or should build a top coat.

There's also the question of longevity. I've heard it bandied around that some sort of UV inhibitor will help the padauk and purpleheart keep their colors longer. Myth? Fact? Experiences?

Still a few weeks to ponder the question; the challenge closes on Halloween.

[HoboMonk]

Try Zinsser Clear Spray Shellac. It is dewaxed and comes in spray cans. It will allow you to sneak up on your finish with spit coats and avoid smearing the finish with a brush or rag.