Sunny,
Heres my process, first sand down to 400 grit, clean off surface put on balsaRite. I then run the pecker over the surface using very light pressure. I have found the teeth will do most of the cutting so dont force the tool or you get to deep/course cuts, use a light touch and let the tool wt do the cutting. I dont overlap each pass, but leave a inch or two space between each pass. I have found that you want each pass to be in the same direction with the grain when ever possible,dont cris-cross this becomes critical because after you "peck" the plane go back and lightly sand. The last sanding (very light) removes those little particals of balsa the pecker pulls to the surface. It sounds like alot of time but I just did a TF-GS-P-47 last night and it only took slightly over an hour. I think the key is that the cuts dont need to be very deep at all. We just need to break the surface so the O2 will disipate. The results are night and day in how the Monokote lays down and you cant see the cuts at all. I have done atleast 10 planes like this with the same excellent results. The part that always surprises me is how shallow the cuts can be and still allow the air to flow, my hypothosis is that we basicly sand the balsa surface closed with 400-600 grit and air cant flow into/through the balsa. The pecker breaks that "surface tension" and allows the air to flow into the balsa, we dont need each cut to be completly through the surface to get the effect.
It works for me.
Kirk
Sorry about the typos cant get spell check to work