Until now I have always used a blonde/superblonde de-waxed shellac. I got a small amount of what appears to be a waxed shellac recently. Compared to my usual shellac, the flakes dissolved almost instantly but the mix is cloudy.
What should I be thinking about if I use this type? I just did a very brief test so far.
waxed vs de-waxed shellac for FP?
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Simon Magennis
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Clay Schaeffer
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Re: waxed vs de-waxed shellac for FP?
The wax should eventually settle to the bottom and you can carefully decant the clear shellac off leaving most of the wax behind.
Some people like using shellac with some wax in it for French polishing. Brian Howard's you tube video explains it some:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ5Zmm9ZKvc
Unless you are top coating with a different finish waxed shellac might work fine.
Some people like using shellac with some wax in it for French polishing. Brian Howard's you tube video explains it some:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ5Zmm9ZKvc
Unless you are top coating with a different finish waxed shellac might work fine.
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Alan Carruth
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Re: waxed vs de-waxed shellac for FP?
Some folks say that the wax tends to make the pad stick more.
With some of the less refined types of shellac, particularly seedlac, the wax particles seem to be larger and easier to filter out. I find with the 'teabag method' particularly useful there. you tie up the shellac that you are going to dissolve in a rag; old T-shirt material works well. Suspend it in a jar of alcohol, with the 'teabag' near the top. The dissolved shellac will settle to the bottom since it's more dense, and push the alcohol to the top. The circulation does the stirring for you, and the shellac dissolves much more quickly without the need to mix it up. With seedlac the wax all stays in the bag so long as you don't squeeze it. When all of the shellac has dissolved you throw away the tea bag, with the wax and dirt and bug parts in it. This doesn't work as well to filter out the wax with the more refined stuff, but at least it's quicker than just dumping everything into a jar, and the wax settles out nicely since you don't have to stir it.
With some of the less refined types of shellac, particularly seedlac, the wax particles seem to be larger and easier to filter out. I find with the 'teabag method' particularly useful there. you tie up the shellac that you are going to dissolve in a rag; old T-shirt material works well. Suspend it in a jar of alcohol, with the 'teabag' near the top. The dissolved shellac will settle to the bottom since it's more dense, and push the alcohol to the top. The circulation does the stirring for you, and the shellac dissolves much more quickly without the need to mix it up. With seedlac the wax all stays in the bag so long as you don't squeeze it. When all of the shellac has dissolved you throw away the tea bag, with the wax and dirt and bug parts in it. This doesn't work as well to filter out the wax with the more refined stuff, but at least it's quicker than just dumping everything into a jar, and the wax settles out nicely since you don't have to stir it.