BT&C Shellac, from Woodcraft?

[Allan Speers]

I need to order some super-blonde flakes, and saw this "BT&C" "Tiger Shellac flakes" product on the Woodcraft website. Holy cow, is it expensive! $41 for 1/2 lb of super-blonde. That's twice the price of what Shellac.net sells, and those guys sell a very good product.

Woodcraft describes the Tiger flakes as "Imported from Germany, this highly refined and dewaxed BT&C Tiger Shellac is unmatched in quality."

Has anyone used this stuff?

Is it somehow better than other good flakes?

What could possibly be better about it? Less wax? Less color?

[David Bassett]

I think BT&C is a Tools for Working Wood (TFWW) brand. They have two types of shellac on their site and the Super-Blond Tiger Flakes is $41 per 1/2#. However their non-Tiger Flakes Blond flakes is $26 per 1/2#. I have no idea what the difference is though. Maybe their descriptions would be enough for you to understand.

Add: Tiger is from Germany. Non-Tiger is from India and packaged in Brooklyn.

[Allan Speers]

David, I don't see how it could be a TFWW brand, since it's also sold by Woodcraft, and is imported from Germany.

I called Woodcraft tech support, but they were absolutely no help. I suspect their advertising is simply marketing hyperbole. Shellac surely does vary in quality, again for both color & amount of wax, but the stuff from Shellac.com is very good and literally half the price.

The only thing I can figure is that the German stuff is actually platina, not super-blonde as it's labelled. That would make it somewhat more expensive (though not twice the price.) But that makes little sense. It's probably just expensive because of the German middle man. Without anyone here having input, I'm going to pass.

[David Bassett]

David, I don't see how it could be a TFWW brand, since it's also sold by Woodcraft, and is imported from Germany.

I don't know the legal relationship, but BT&C (Brooklyn Tool & Craft) seems to be a label for things TFWW imports, repackages, or contracts, and then distributes. E.g. Joel blog'd about the historic example, design, and manufacturing of the BT&C Hardware Saw. (Which LV now carries. LV lists it as made by Gramercy, though TFWW doesn't seem to make that connection.) Also, I noticed this on Joel's blog, "One of our major New Year's Resolutions is to ramp up production of all the Gramercy and BT&C products so supply can meet demand!"



... Without anyone here having input, I'm going to pass.

I certainly agree it doesn't make sense to pay double for a product unless it has clear benefits.

[Allan Speers]

I don't know the legal relationship, but BT&C (Brooklyn Tool & Craft) seems to be a label for things TFWW imports, repackages, or contracts, and then distributes.


Didn't know that. Thanks.

It also explains the price markup.