Question on shellac and oil finish

[Kyle Stiefel]

Does anyone have a reason that I can't finish a bed with dewaxed shellac followed by teak oil?

The bed is being made from yellow cedar and teak. My thought was the shellac will create and even grain absorption of the oil.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks,
Kyle

[Kyle Stiefel]

I had one other finishing question.

What would you opt to use on aromatic cedar in order to protect it but still allow the oils to permeate the air?

[Todd Burch]

Kyle, I can think of one. It won't work. You want the oil to absorb into the wood. Putting shellac on first will seal the wood. (Caveat - I've never used or heard of teak oil - sounds like a marketing ploy/gimick).

Now, if you are putting an oil/varnish blend over the shellac, that would work, but I would rather just use a varnish. Thin the varnish with mineral spirits to get a little deeper into the wood (unless you use shellac first to seal the wood, in which case all the mineral spirits in Sitka will evaporate off into thin air). (I'm from Anchorage!)

Shellac is a great standalone finish, a great sealer and a fantastic barrier coat for incompatible finishes. Why anyone would use it otherwise escapes me.

About the cedar - you are asking for mutually exclusive end results. If you want the aroma of cedar, do nothing to it. If you want to protect it, choose a protection level and apply that finish, thus trapping the odor inside forever.

Todd

[Kyle Stiefel]

Now, if you are putting an oil/varnish blend over the shellac, that would work, but I would rather just use a varnish. Thin the varnish with mineral spirits to get a little deeper into the wood


Todd,

Thanks for the input. I have been itching to play around with the shellac. Texas is the other end of the spectrum from Anchorage. NICE WEBSITE

[Michael Stafford]

Kyle, you did not say what you want to finish. Teak oil is a very waxy finish. I used to use it annually when I refinished wood on my boat. It is wonderful for that purpose particularly when used to renew weather worn teak. I would be surprised if you could get any finish to stick to wood that had teak oil previously applied.

[Ray Thompson]

Kyle, you did not say what you want to finish. Teak oil is a very waxy finish. I used to use it annually when I refinished wood on my boat. It is wonderful for that purpose particularly when used to renew weather worn teak. I would be surprised if you could get any finish to stick to wood that had teak oil previously applied.


Shellac will stick to about anything, including wax. Way back in my pattern making days we made all the fillets in wax and if an error was made we "shimmed" with wax sheets. Everything was given a coat of orange shellac before going to the foundry, it stuck nicely to everything.

That is one of the reasons shellac is such a good barrier coat between dissimilar
finishes.
Ray