1920's Cedar Honour Board.

[Brigalow]

Good afternoon everybody.

My local church has a 1920's honour board, remembering local lads that went off to the Great War, that we wish to restore. Did look at professional restorers in Brissy but too cost prohibitive for a small country church.
The board is Cedar with a shellac finish. The shellac is 'allegatored' all over.
It had been caught in a flood in 1990 and has been living in a shed since then.
I have so far given it a bit of a clean up using natural soap flakes and warm water, paint splatter chipped out where the board was still on the church wall when the wall was painted and the pelmet reattached using the original nails (if there was going to be stress on that part i would probably consider reattaching the pelmet with long, thin brass screws)....the base is still yet to be reattached. The brass wall mounts will also be polished up and a thin layer of shellac will go over the paper makers tag on the back to try and preserve that (unless you advise otherwise).

My questions to those more in the know than me are (with more questions no doubt to follow later on ).

1. Should I try and remove old shellac completely with cloth and denatured alcohol? Would 0000 steel wool and denatured alcohol be too harsh? Just cloth and alcohol on name panels (test has been done with alcohol on a full stop on name to ensure it does not affect the paint)
2. Remove all old shellac or just try to smooth out with alcohol?
3. Blonde shellac over name panels and amber shellac over rest of board or amber over the lot?
4. Where colour has come off (bottom of right panel as you are looking at it in the 'photo). Would you recommend for/against light or mid tan boot polish to try and darken it a tad?....Will shellac go over boot polish?.....shellac, then boot polish , then shellac again maybe?

Answers to these questions and any other advice that you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Grant.
20230611_111753.jpg20230611_112150.jpg20230517_130016.jpg20230611_111803.jpg

[auscab]

Hi Grant.

Don't do anything to change it in any way would make it worse obviously.

20230611_111753a.jpg

This sort of crackled finish below is not something that will get better if tampered with. Unless you want to spend six months picking at it and leveling it very carefully like a museum may do remove graffiti or later paint jobs on something important . Just a light polish and wax is all Ive ever done as nothing improves it and can easily make it worse.
20230517_130016a.jpg

This below should be tackled by touching out with shellac and making sure you are not going darker or more orange with the shellac you use. do lots of testing first. Build it to the same level and then blend it in with a polishing rubber.
20230611_111803a.jpg

This below . Try a dab with metho on a spot and see what happens . Try a heat gun to see the same .
20230611_112150a.jpg

Id do just those put it back together and give a light shellac with a rubber maybe and then a wax. If you don't know how to use shellac like a pro then just wax it. The stuff has to be very thin and applied very thinly .

[Brigalow]

Thanks for your help, auscab.....I'll do as you have suggested.
Do you have any preference as far as polish and wax goes?

Grant.

[auscab]

Thanks for your help, auscab.....I'll do as you have suggested.
Do you have any preference as far as polish and wax goes?

Grant.

I use Blonde and flake shellac which I get at Graeme Brown Antiques in Melbourne. Its raw and has to be mixed and bottled. The wax I make myself .
The Blonde is lighter and more clear than the flake . Flake is much more orange. For what your doing it probably wont matter what type you use.

U-Beaut sell shellac and wax finishes here on forum somewhere. Its pre mixed and great stuff. The blonde is . Not sure about flake ? If They have it ? I'm not sure if the shop still running here though. I cant seem to open it. You will have to ask in the finishing section and you will get a quick answer.

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