Thread: Recent Restoration projects suggestions

Nice scales MW. What technique did you use to apply it? There is more ways of working shellac than just a French Polish, thats for sure. I have never had much luck with just brushing it on though. It dries very fast and can ball up fairly easily. It does lend itself to many different uses. Little tidbit on shellac, it is the greatest stain blocker ever. If you have water stains or wood stain or hair dye on a wall that just bleeds through your paint, then hit it with a couple of heavy coats of shellac and repaint. It will stick to almost anything and all paints will stick to it.

Anyone doing a restore to a safety razor?

Originally Posted by RezDog

What technique did you use to apply it?

Finger tip with a rubber glove as stated above. I swipe 1 or 2 tack coats on, giving about 30 min in between each coat to dry.. then 00 or 000 steel wool to smooth it down.. repeat about 5 times. Takes some time. Gotta watch for thick spots in the tack coat and no bubbles!

Regular shellac i use the wool after every coat. The above technique is for button lac.

And you gotta make sure it's dry before the steel wool hits it. Steel wool and tacky shellac.. time to start over.

To finish ive buffed it with minwax or renwax. I like minwax a little better..

Here is the one I tried a few years ago with the pre-mix stuff. It was also my first attempt at inlays and a multi-wood wedge (which turned out more like a "spacer" than a wedge). It's bloodwood with butternut/ebony inlays and wedge with MJ Higgins blade. If I remember this right I applied the shellac in much the same way as described above but with paper towel instead of glove fingertip, dry ~30 min, steel wool. Looking back, the glove fingertip method would have been better than the paper towel. Next time I will try mixing my own as it seems everything I read about shellac indicates mixing your own gives better results.

Very nice..!!
I've got a piece of bloodwood.
But have been hesitant to use it, it easily wants to splinter down the grain, and afraid it will split during pinning.

Originally Posted by outback

Very nice..!!
I've got a piece of bloodwood.
But have been hesitant to use it, it easily wants to splinter down the grain, and afraid it will split during pinning.

That's why I use CA glue finishes. It hardens the wood to the point it won't split. At least for me. I've made scales with unstabilyzed burl, and once coated in CA they are fine.

That would be the plan.
Stabilize w/CA.

I don't do CA finishing anymore, It typically cracks after time from the scales flexing. But I do put a few coats on the inside of my wood scales to seal, and add more strength.

I haven't noticed issues with cracking, but I think I've sold most if not all of the ones I've made.

Originally Posted by outback

Very nice..!!
I've got a piece of bloodwood.
But have been hesitant to use it, it easily wants to splinter down the grain, and afraid it will split during pinning.

not to hijack the thread, but i've used bloodwood for multiple scales or wedges and had no problems with cracking/splitting. Only used tung oil as a finish.

Originally Posted by TwistedOak

not to hijack the thread, but i've used bloodwood for multiple scales or wedges and had no problems with cracking/splitting. Only used tung oil as a finish.

I've done others in it, but this piece is just splitting when given a little pressure.