Official Luthiers Forum!

What are my options for the liquid when wet sanding a shellac finish? LMI recommends mineral spirits, a guy on YouTube uses soapy water. I'd rather not use gnarly chemicals-I like the soapy water idea-but don't want make a gross error.

Thoughts, ideas?

Thanks!

jim

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Mmmm....wood.

I've had good luck with both mineral oil and Walnut oil, but needed more oil than I expected to.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

I've used the same kind of oil that I used while french polishing, olive oil.

That guy on youtube certainly wasn't wet sanding shellac if he was using soap and water. That would be the sure fire way to screw up a shellac finish. He must have been wet sanding nitro.

How did you apply the shellac? If it was FP, then you probably need very little sanding, and consequently, very little oil.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

I use water to wet-sand shellac. It hasn't screwed up any of my finishes so far....not sure why it would unless you let the water set for a couple hours. I do dry it often while sanding and then clean up after sanding with naphtha