Finishing with hard shellac - can it be done?

[snowman]

Last year I made a pair of bedside chests of drawers. I originally finished these with oil and wax, which looked and felt great at the time, but quickly the tops have become scuffed and scratched. I heard about the U-beaut product "Hard Shellac" and thought this may be a better more durable finish.

As the product didn't come with any instructions, I followed the method described in Neil Ellis's article "A pretty easy finish" in Australian Wood Review, no 37. I stripped the top back to bare wood, sanded to 600 grit, applied U-beaut sanding sealer and sanded to 1200 grit. Then I tried brushing on the hard shellac using a 1 inch polishing mop I got from an artist supply store - a beautiful soft brush. I mixed the shellac with an equal amount of 100% metho and brushed it on using the strokes described in the article. I tried not to overlap strokes but don't quite have the deftness of hand to completely achieve this. It seems this is a critical step as any overlap results in a bright orange ridge forming once the finish has dried. At first I thought I would only need to sand these ridges out, but I have not been able to do this - I find I completely cut through on surrounding areas of the finish long before the ridges are removed. Applying multiple coats over a poor first coat only seems to exacerbate the problem. I have had to strip off finishes twice now, and have also (having come to some sense) made repeated attempts to finish scrap boards with Hard Shellac, but am unable to produce a decent result.

Has anyone used this product successfully? If anyone can tell me what I am doing wrong, and how I can fix it, I would be extremely grateful.

[Shane Watson]

Of course it can be done. THough probably the best piece of advise that can be offered is to get yourself a copy of Neils' book.
Polishers Handbook

I am sure Neil will post some detailed info here for you though.

Cheers!

[snowman]

I do have Neil's excellent Polisher's Handbook, which I have read several times. It's advice on brushing on a shellac finish seems to be the same as Neil's Australian Wood Review article ... not surprising seeing they are both from the same author!

I'm sure it's just a case of me being too inexperienced to understand something basic, but despite these excellent books and articles, so far I have not been able to have success with the hard shellac, and if anyone has had success with it or has any idea what I'm doing wrong, I would be very grateful to hear it.

[Jim Carroll]

The mop type brushes hold more liquid than conventional brushes so you have to adjust the way you lay the shellac on by trying to have a lighter feel , If you are too heavy handed you flood the workpeice and have to try and spread what you have put on . You could also try thinning the mix some more if you feel it is too thick . It just means puting a couple more coats on

[Neil]

G'day snowman - First a question or two before a reply. Where did you get the hard shellac? Is it U-Beaut Polishes, Hard Shellac (Dewaxed White)? If so what is the expiry (use by date) on the bottle? How come you didn't get an information sheet with it? We supply info sheets to all our distributors to be given out with the products. There is also a fair amount of info available on our web site http://www.ubeaut.biz but the best of all is in the book.

Bright orange ridges doesn't right for dewaxed white shellac, sound a bit more like French polish.

Anyway the answer should be pretty simple, Just add a little more metho until you get a really easy flow of the material onto the timber. Work with slow light precise movement of the brush starting off with a light touch and then adding a little more pressure as the brush begins to empty out.

Don't swamp the work with polish. Several light coats are far better and much easier to control than one or two heavy ones. It takes a bit of practice to get it right and even then it's not all that easy. If you are still getting ridges, apply 2 or 3 light coats then lightly sand back with 800 or 1200 grit before continuing. Allow a day at least for drying before sanding.

The best result with shellac is obtained when it is applied as French polish . Brushing is a quick fix that at it's best is pretty good but still runs a poor second to French polishing. We have a number of users who prefer to spray the hard shellac. I haven't tried it this way myself, but have had a few pretty good reports on it. Once again, if you spray it, use several light coats rather than a couple of heavy ones.

I know of one gent who puts a bit of turps in the mix to get a better flow onto the timber when brushing it. Reckons it works a treat. Not my recommendation, but it does work, I've have tried it. However the long term effect of this on the polish is unknown and not really advised. By the way this only works because we use pure ethanol in the shellac. If you are using cheap metho and not the 100% meth then it won't work. Or at least it shouldn't.

You can add butanol (if you can find some) at the rate of 5% to the polish. This will give a better flow and slightly longer drying time at higher temperatures.

Hope this has been of some help to you.

Cheers - Neil

PS As with all shellac work, practise makes perfect............ well, almost.

[snowman]

Neil,

Thanks for your valuable information. To answer your questions, the polish is definitely U-Beaut Polishes Hard Shellac (Dewaxed White). I bought it at Timbecon. I don't know why I didn't get an information sheet with it. I also don't know how long it may have been sitting on the shelf before I bought it, but the best before date is 1 September 2004, so it should still be fresh.

I'll try mixing in some more metho, and practising my brush technique some more. The butanol sounds like it could be useful, but where would you get it? I had trouble enough finding the 100% industrial methylated spirits.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll give it another go on the weekend and let you know how it turns out.

[snowman]

Well, I stripped back the top of the bedside chest and had another go finishing it with hard shellac. This time I thinned it two parts 100% Metho to one part Hard Shellac, and found that it did flow better, and of course produced a lighter coat.

I still had trouble with ridges forming in the finish though, and I had trouble trying to sand these out. I wet sanded with 400 grit paper between coats, and added a bit of detergent to the water. I found that I was cutting right through the finish in other areas before getting the ridges out where I must have overlapped brush strokes. I find it very difficult not to overlap the strokes or leave gaps.

After four coats I sanded up to 2000 grit and then finished with EEE-Ultrashine wax. The finish was better than my previous attempt but still less than average.

It's clear to me that I'm not going to be able to learn how to finish properly just from books and magazine articles. Does anyone know of anyone who teaches proper finishing in the Perth area?