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I bought some super blonde shellac from Liberon almost two years ago, and this is what I use for french polishing. I have noticed over the past six months or so that whenever I mix a new batch, not all of it dissolves, and the amount that goes undisolved increases with each batch. The undisolved flakes have the look and consistency of Jello, more or less. I always strain the shellac through a paper towel -- sometimes a coffee filter -- to insure purity, but now I have to or I'll get the snotty stuff in my shellac bottle.

It occurs to me that, even though I store my shellac flakes inside two ziplock freezer bags, and store this inside a tupperware container, that the shellac has most likely picked up some moisture. So my first question is, is it possible to bake the shellac at low heat to remove the moisture? Seems to me that, as long as I kept the temp down to say 150F or so, I should be okay, but I thought I'd ask first.

Second question: I am beginning work on a guitar with a Honduran mahogany body. The mahogany is very nice looking but rather pale. So I'm considering using a darker shellac on it. I'm wondering what a good type or grade of shellac would be for a darker look -- at least a couple of shades darker than superblonde. Care to lend any advice in this regard?

Best,

Michael

_________________
Live to Play, Play to Live

   Moisture isn't that big a deal in this case. Alcohol will displace moisture. If you do get blusing you can get it out.
   That is the beauty of schellac and lacquer. You canuse analine dye to color the shellac
john

Michael,
There are many shades and colors of shellac but a couple of my favorites are garnet and orange. Check out shellac.net for a good price and variety.

    I agree that orange is nice for that vintage look. The more clear it is the more pure the shellac is. I like the aniline dyes as you can make your own color.
    With repair you never know what color you need.
john

Michael,

I am in no way an expert in such matters, but it occurred to me that maybe the problem not lay with the shellac, but maybe the alcohol.

Have you changed brands lately?

My train of thought is similar to putting sugar in coffee/tea. Only so much will dissolve in the coffee before it becomes saturated and no more will dissolve.

If you were using 90% alcohol before and now you are using 70% I could imagine that even a 1 lb cut may have undissolved shellac remaining.

This is only a thought, more knowledgable people here will know exactly whats going on.

-Rick

Shellac does become less soluble with age. I bought a batch once that had sat on the shelf in the store for so long it simply would not dissolve. There are repair touch-ups on old violins that were done with shellac 75-100 years ago, and now thay can't be removed without damaging the wood.

Usually the less processed the shellac the more color it has, and the tougher and better a finish it makes. I used super blond a few times, but found it just didn't hold up well enough in service. I've been using seedlac, which is about the least processed stuff out there, and the color is quite nice. It's also easy to de-wax for FP, since the wax particles are big enough to stay behind in the 'teabag'.

    Mr Carruth
     Which alcohol do you use? I agree the processing of the laq can determine the outcome. I tried french polishing a few times and have mixed results.
     To date the best results was with moonshine.
john

john

where did you apply the 'shine?

I've been using store-bought denatured alky of late. I do have some of the 'good stuff', but find I use less and less of it as my technique gets better.

I think that's the key. I, too, had a lot of trouble learning. Admittedly, I tried to learn with (probably old) 'Bullseye' shellac (which I didn't know enough to decant) and denatured alcohol from the drug store, and baby oil. No wonder the stuff went on badly and never set! I didn't know about 'spiriting off' either...

I finally decided to do it right, got some fresh shellac, 190 proof alcohol, and so on, and learned how over a few guitars. Then I started to back off on the expensive solvent, cutting it with the hardware store stuff or Bekhol. I still found that I needed to use the good stuff for spiriting off for a while, but now I can get away with cheaper alky.

IMO, there's no substitute for good shellac. There are several oils you can use; my current favorite is walnut. Do stay away from baby oil, though... As your technique gets better you can work with less than ideal materials and get a god job. But I think you almost have to use the good stuff in lerning: it makes everything easier.

Thanks
   May I call you for some advice?
THanks
John