Need help finishing Zebrawood

[Scott Holmes]

Keep shaking and/or stiring it; 12 hours is not really long enough. I did a batch of garnet a few weeks ago and the 3 pounds of flakes in 2-1/2 gallons of DNA took a day and a half to dissolve. Stirred whenever I thought about it, say 3-4 times per day.

[Andy Kromkamp]

Thanks guys. I put it in a hot water bath last night and that dissolved the shellac pretty quickly.

I wiped on two coats and the color change wasn't as dramatic as I had expected. I'm going to wipe on another 4-6 coats and see how the color progresses.

[Scott Holmes]

ANDY,

Shellac is not to be built up as you can with lacquer and varnish. The perfect fininf with shellac is the thinnest possible coat that is flawless. I would hope you need far less than 6 or 8 coats.

Here is an article a friend of mine wrote that explains it in great depth and detail.
http://www.hardwoodlumberandmore.com...g-Shellac.aspx

[Prashun Patel]

Like Scott said, put it on thin. If you don't think the color is deep enough yet, then I would add brown dye to the garnet shellac b4 you add any more coats. Aiming for depth of color by simply using MORE coats of shellac than is optimal is going to lead to disappointment and a dripmarked finish. (DAMHIKT...)

[Andy Kromkamp]

Thanks - good reading, I didn't know that.

Seems like I may want to experiment some more with other tinted finishes then - just a couple coats of shellac has not really darkened the color significantly past what the BLO application gave.

[Andy Kromkamp]

Well I'm still experimenting with this. The biggest problem I am having is that when I try to stain the zebrawood veneer it's picking up "bands" anywhere from 1/4" to 1" thick where the stain absorbs darker - it's not a pleasant look. Only the linseed doesn't exhibit this effect. I've tried preconditioning with preconditioner, BLO, and clear Watco with no help.I'd like to try some kind of tinted top coat finish at this point to see if I can darken the color purely as a top coat - something I can apply multiple coats and have it get darker and darker. Any product suggestions? (possibly some kind of tinted wipe on varnish that offers a rich brown/dark walnut color)Thanks!

[Scott Holmes]

I would stay as far from tint varnish as possible.. It dries way too slowly. An even color is difficult at best. Use shellac, lacquer or a waterborne finish as a toner.

[Andy Kromkamp]

Would a water based finish apply well overtop of a base coat of shellac?Most people don't like Polyshades but for this application would multiple thin layers (possibly over a clear base coat of poly) be reasonably successful?I also read that gel stains can be used as a toner over a finishing coat?Thanks!

[Scott Holmes]

Water-borne finishes will be OK over DE-WAXED shellac. They wont stick to shellac that still has the wax; neither will poly.

Polyshades is a varnish based toner. Multiple thin coats will work in theory not in application; it dries too slowly to get even color. As it takes it's time to dry it has time to pool, sag runor drip. These will be darker than the rest of the area.

As you said "most people don't like Polyshades" This is why they don't like it; getting even color is next to impossible.

The people that claim they get "great results" with polyshades are either: very lucky, marketing guys for MinWax, or have lower standards of acceptibility.

Gel stains can be used to enhance the color (tone) but they are not "toners" they are "glaze" coats. Glaze coats need to be top coated. Toners may not need a top coat depending on the project and the type of toner. Generally, both toners and glaze coats should be applied BETWEEN clear coats.

[John Coloccia]

re: dissolving shellac

I had my wife buy me a coffee grinder at a garage sale. I grind the shellac in the grinder and it will dissolve almost immediately when it hits the alcohol.

[Andy Kromkamp]

So it sounds like I only have a couple of options (I would prefer not to use lacquer):

1)gel stain over dewaxed shellac (then seal with another coat of shellac?)

2)tinting the shellac itself (with aniline dye etc)

[Andy Kromkamp]

I did try a couple of tinted varnishes this weekend. The Polyshades as you suggested was very difficult to get an even tone with, and since I will be finishing a fairly large surface there is no hope of this working for me.

I did find a stain&varnish product from a company called Saman (Canadian only I think) that covered very well, very evenly - but it really obscured the grain and wasn't the look I was going for.

So tonight I will be experimenting with tinting the shellac.

[Andy Kromkamp]

So I tried tinting the shellac with the aniline dye powders I have - I just mixed the powder directly to the mixed shellac. I had to add a *lot* of the powder to get any noticeable color change, so I'm not sure if I mixed it correctly - should I have dissolved it in alcohol first and then mixed the liquid to the shellac?

I did find that, even with a very dark walnut dye the color I was getting was still more of a medium brown. I think I'm going to have better luck with gel stain as a glaze coat overtop of the un-dyed shellac. If I can't get towards what I'm looking for with that then I'm going to change directions and go lighter with just BLO and a clear finish

[Scott Holmes]

The dye powder you used should have been disoolved first. A water soluble dye will not work very well in shellac.

Have you tried the dye applied on the bare wood, then shellac to seal it in? Next step would be the glaze coat.

If you haven't tried this you should.

[Andy Kromkamp]

I did try the dye (dissolved in water) initially on the bare wood and found the results to be horrible - like I had simply painted the wood with watercolor paint.

When I was doing some research it seemed that aniline dyes do dissolve in alcohol - are you saying I should dissolve it in water first or alcohol first? If the former wouldn't that subsequently affect the shellac (due to the water content)?

Thanks!