Need help: Shellac over wood stain

[daveh]

Hi All
I'm hoping that somebody on the forum here can help me out with this frustrating problem...

I'm doing up an old valve radio cabinet, and bought myself a tin of Wattyl wood stain (Jarrah). Having stained the cabinet with 3 or 4 coats, I was pretty pleased with the result.

Next I applied a coat of shellac. That's when the problems started!!

As soon as the shellac went on, some of the stain started to run and patches and blotches started to appear. Trying to patch it up with more shellac made the problem worse, and the wood stain started to thin out in places.

I stripped the whole cabinet and started again, this time applying the shellac very carefully (using a brush this time) but the same thing happened, with streaks where the shellac overlapped.

I've tried this 3 times now and have had no success at all. I really don't want to end up putting polyurethane on the cabinet, and much prefer the shellac.

Any help around this dilemma will be MUCH appreciated!!! Thanks!

Dave

[echnidna]

the stain is not compatible with the metho in the shellac so you need another stain with a different solvent base. As you are happy with this stain color another way around the problem is to apply a clear aerosol poly over the stain as a sealer. let it dry thoroughly then apply the shellac finish over the poly.

[daveh]

Thanks Bob for the suggestions

The problem is that the stain I'm using is spirit based, so the metho in the shellac just removes the stain as soon as it is applied. I'd rather not use the spray-on poly, so it looks like I'm going to have to look for a stain that is not spirit based.

Dave

[soundman]

firstly there are other alternatives to poly.

precatalised lacer is probably the most popular in industry.

or change to a water bassed stain.

better still buy a coppy of the polishers hand book before proceding any further. you will bless the day you did.

head for www.ubeaut.com.au the parent site of this forum.

they have all sorts of good stuff including the polishers handbbok.

[Neil]

Use a turpentine based stain or a water stain (dye) neither of these are compatable with the shellac and because of this will not be pulled off when the shellac is applied.

Wattyl colourwood is fine or get some Feast Watson's Black japan and thin it with turps then add some red universal tint (the stuff thewy use to tint paint with) until you get the desired colour.

Cheers - Neil :D

PS the colourwood is probably the easiest alternative.

[Bob Willson]

Or you could use a Tung oil finish. This gives similar results to Shellac. Perhaps not quite as deep a finish as shellac but very nice anyway and very easy to apply.

[daveh]

Thanks guys for all the suggestions!