Cherry Wood Finish Clarification

[Dennis Collins]

I need some help understand the various finishes used for cherry wood. It seems that BLO is a very popular first coat and a dewaxed shellac or wax for the finish coat. It has also been recommened to use the dewaxed shellac (1lb cut) as a seal coat if you are going to stain.

First is the Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac a dewaxed shellac? The label does not indicate either. Is there another preferred Shellac other than Zinsser (Got this at Woodcraft)? Also, why use dewaxed? When would you use waxed?

I know most really like the natural finish of cherry but I had to use some sapwood streaked boards in my project and while the cherry heartwood darkens those with some sapwood obviously are dark and light. Any suggestion on how to get the color in the sap wood?

Thanks.

[Jim Becker]

Bullseye is NOT de-waxed. Sealcoat is if you need to use pre-mixed. Sealcoat is relatively light in color, however. For cherry I prefer garnet and you'll need to use flakes. I use the shellac as a barrier coat between the oil and any additional finishes and sometimes as the top coat alone...depends on how the object is going to be used. On some decorative items, I only use oil and wax. (Thos Moser's (http://www.thosmoser.com) furniture is only finished in oil and wax...)

Coloring sapwood is doable, but requires you to "anticipate" what the darker color will be when the heart ages and oxidizes. Some folks will take a dye and use a fine artist's brush to "paint" the sapwood. The downside is that it will be quite visible in the beginning and likely visible in the future. My recommendation is that if you don't like the look of the sap in your project, avoid it in the first place...choosing your material is the very first step in the finishing process. This is one of the reasons that you anticipate more waste for cherry (and walnut) when sap is to be avoided. I do not believe there is any way that you are going to be able to fully blend the sap with the heart when time is brought into consideration without totally slathering the project with relatively opaque finishes. Nature of the beast...

[Steve Schoene]

Jim is right that the can must say Seal Coat for the shellac to be dewaxed. And, to get a dark shellac such as garnet you must mix from flakes. You only need dewaxed shellac if you are going to over coat that with polyurethane varnish or a waterborne finish. However, the Seal Coat can will also say Bullseye on it. Zinnser apparently uses that on all their shellac products. The shellac with wax is now called Amber and Clear. which used to be called Orange and White respectively. But amber sounds more elegant than orange, and the white was likely being confused with the white pigmented stain blocker product.

[larry merlau]

you apply the garnet first for color and sealing, but if you are using poly or waterbase finish will then need seal coat on next. if you are using lacqure the seal coat isnt needed??

[Steve Schoene]

Almost. if you are going to use garnet shellac for color, you can get it already dewaxed. Then you can applyany finish directly on that. Seal Coat isn't needed.

Zinsser's markets of Seal Coat differently from the way I would do it. Seal Coat is just dewaxed shellac, processed somewhat differently so that it has a longer life. It works just as well as a top coat as the other shellacs they market that do contain wax--infact somewhat better since dewaxed shellac offers more water resistance that shellac with wax, and is slightly clearer. It's not just a "sanding sealer"--in fact, there isn't anything that makes it sand better than other dewaxed shellacs. Sanding sealers for lacquer often contain some stearate additive that makes the material easier to sand, but with the unfortunate side effect of creating a weaker finish. Seal Coat has no additives and performs similarly to other shellac.

You don't need dewaxed shellac under lacquer (though make the first coat very dry, since the solvents in lacquer can dissolve shellac.) Neither do you need dewaxed shellac under traditional resin varnishes.