Goes on easy, and seals very well. Absolutely need to sand between coats to minimize the brush strokes.I got so sick of painting and repainting my fireplace mantle. It would bleed the sap through after about 6 months. Finally, tried this primer. After two years, zero bleed through. I'm a big fan. I should have found out about this primer sooner.Okay so as far as the stain blocking I will say it is fine . I was painting espresso brown cabinets white so I spent the money to get the good stuff . I absolutely swear by General Finishes Milk Paint and thought I would love this primer. Well the paint smells like old, rotting fish. I mean really bad. I actually thought it was just a bad can but when I had to order a second can to finish up it smelled equally awful. My husband would not even enter the kitchen. I had a couple of dried drips that I had to lightly sand after they dried and even sanding the paint made it smell like fish again! Definitely not ever using this stuff again.I am a big fan and this product works very well. I used a spray gun and it had a great base to use milk paint.This is a spendy gallon of primer but worth every single penny. I used this to stain block and seal some VERY dark stained kitchen cabinets prior to painting with GF Milk Paint in Seagull Gray. This primer is absolutely the best and I have ZERO concerns about that dark stain coming through. Why risk having to completely redo your kitchen cabinet makeover from scratch by choosing a lesser primer? I don't know about you, but my 70+ hours of work put in on this project is worth a heck of a lot more than the premium cost of this primer. I don't plan to ever paint my cabinets again and this product gives me that peace of mind. I had no problems with the product at all - it was perfectly fluid when delivered, no clumps or other issues. I'd buy from this seller again.I have a high end cabinet painting business. Bleed through from oak is one of our biggest problems so I was excited to find this product. Sadly it didn't live up to my expectations and won't work for our purposes. As you can see on our sample drawer, the half that was cleaned and sanded bled through. The half that we left untouched/unprepped turned out significantly better. If you can stomach priming right over grease and gunk this product will probably work for you.It took a bit of effort to get the finish, but, following the manufacturer's guide, the finish is astounding. And, one of the most important factor is the very low odor, which is good for the people, pets, and the environmentI purchased this with high expectations, and being water based. I see no difference in the performance verse the BIN Advanced. At nearly 100.00 dollars a gallon, the cost was a major factor in my decision to use the BIN Advance at half the cost and no performance difference. The BIN Advance may have edged out the General Stain Blocking regarding adhesion and scratch test.