Official Luthiers Forum!

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

That was interesting, thanks for sharing.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Pretty cool with a few takeaways…

Boy I’m glad I live here.

Stock up on shellac even though I hardly use it…

If they’re introducing fungicides in production it may be less non toxic, possibly…

Does anyone know if unmixed shellac has a shelf life?

The more refined grades like Blonde have a limited shelf life. It's hard to give a specific time frame. In time Blonde will take weeks to dissolve or leave undissolved slivers in the mix.
I have some seedlac that is over 40 years old and still works the way it always has. Button has a good shelf life but whether it will approach seedlac is unknown to me.

_________________
Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

From what I understand shellac flakes have a shelf life of about 3 years. Assuming you're storing in a cool dark place.

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Excellent video, and timely.
I just did a shellac deep dive due to some pitch reside (corns on the paper) on a Sitka on my current build.
Its a long story, I almost started a thread to ask about it...

On the subject of blond shellac FLAKE shelf life, this was new learning for me.
I just got off the phone with Ron of Shellac.net and he confirmed that "yes" the shelf life of dewaxed shellac FLAKE was indeed 1 to 2 years if stored cool and dry. Ron told me if it was "older" flakes, to mix a bit up in 2 lb cut and do a standard shellac test (8 hours on glass or equivalent then thumbnail resistant- or sands to dust on wood).

Thanks for the video and the thread.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Thanks for sharing Tom.

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