Shellac flakes

[Steve Nix]

For those one you who use shellac flakes how long does it take to dissolve the flakes. I’ve put 1oz. in 8oz DNA.

[Robert Hayward]

For me it depends on how old the flakes are and what alcohol I use to cut the flakes. Newer flakes dissolve faster, but not always. I use a 95% alcohol to dissolve. Check the product MSDS if the can does not say. Three days would be normal for flakes and sometimes a week for crushed buttons. Pulverizing the flakes or buttons in a coffee grinder hastens the dissolve time.

[Mel Fulks]

Steve , I can’t give you much help …but you have to be careful with the DNA. A loose top on the can….can let it draw in water. And some of the stuff brand , new has loose tops Then it’s no
good for dissolving the flakes. Some DNA seems to be worthless for any but cleaning glass ! Many only the buy the more expensive
brands . Look them up. One ounce in 8 ounces is not much.

[Mel Fulks]

I don’t know why ,but old flakes don’t dissolve well. Always seemed strange to read “store in tight container “ and such. Then I tried to use
old flakes , they looked new ,but did not dissolve, mystery still “ un-sol-ved “

[roger wiegand]

I buzz them in a coffee grinder and they mostly dissolve in an hour or two, when the shop is cold and I'm in a hurry I set the jar in glue pot (sans glue) and that really speeds things up. I use the Mohawk shellac reducer; more expensive than "stove fuel" from the borg, but it works well and consistently.

I'd been meaning to ask about old flakes. I discovered a ~25 year old container of flakes in the back of my cabinet, tried making them up, and perhaps a quarter of the material isn't dissolving (it's been over a month now). The ground particles swell up to a gel, but no amount of stirring and shaking get them to fully dissolve. I decanted the stuff that did dissolve and it works perfectly normally. I wasn't aware that shellac polymerized-- i've redissolved 150 year old finishes without an issue. Any ideas what's going on with that?

[Brian Deakin]

I would grind the flakes in a glass mortar

If you use a stone mortar you are likley to stain the suface The tradional light stone mortars should only be used for white powders
Ideally if you want to grind any coloured substance you should use a glass mortar

[John Kananis]

I use fresh flakes (under a couple years old) and never DNA- I use everclear actually. I let it sit overnight at most.

[Robert Hayward]

Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ-FEtA0TKU) is a good shellac video done by Stumpy Nubs. He goes into cutting, grinding, mixing and many more topics.

[Mel Fulks]

Didn’t see anything about what kind of flakes. The orange is the most durable , but the color isn’t popular. I’ve tested it on wood blocks in
water and in took about 2 weeks for it to get white at edges. When removed the blocks ,after some days , the white went away. The orange
I think ,is not sold de-waxed.