Amber shellac under WB?

[Dave Cav]

I am making a set of guest bedroom furniture out of alder with a little birch ply and some maple. On the nightstands I primed them with thinned clear shellac (couldn't find any Sealcoat), which warmed up the wood and sealed the grain, and then finished with four coats of GF HP Topcoat. The first coat of topcoat had a bit of honey amber Transtint in it. They turned out pretty good, but I'd like to deepen the amber color a bit on the next piece. For the dresser, I thought about using regular amber shellac for the first coat, then sealing it with clear shellac, then going with the GF Topcoat. Will the clear shellac seal up the amber enough to keep from having problems with the topcoat?

[Rob Young]

I am making a set of guest bedroom furniture out of alder with a little birch ply and some maple. On the nightstands I primed them with thinned clear shellac (couldn't find any Sealcoat), which warmed up the wood and sealed the grain, and then finished with four coats of GF HP Topcoat. The first coat of topcoat had a bit of honey amber Transtint in it. They turned out pretty good, but I'd like to deepen the amber color a bit on the next piece. For the dresser, I thought about using regular amber shellac for the first coat, then sealing it with clear shellac, then going with the GF Topcoat. Will the clear shellac seal up the amber enough to keep from having problems with the topcoat?

Yes.

Or you can add transtint to the Sealcoat (dewaxed) and be done with it.

[Jim Becker]

Dave, you can use any color of shellac you prefer with no problem to get the tone you want, but it's best if it's de-waxed if it's going to live under water borne or anything with Polyurethane in it.

[Dave Cav]

Well, that didn't work too well. The amber shellac was difficult to apply evenly, and ended up looking almost identical to the previous WB with the TransTint in it, plus there was the extra step of applying the clear seal coat over the amber. Next time I'll just skip the amber shellac and tint either the sealer or the first coat of WB topcoat.

[Patrick Chase]

Well, that didn't work too well. The amber shellac was difficult to apply evenly, and ended up looking almost identical to the previous WB with the TransTint in it, plus there was the extra step of applying the clear seal coat over the amber. Next time I'll just skip the amber shellac and tint either the sealer or the first coat of WB topcoat.

Is the amber shellac dewaxed? If not, you might want to try that instead next time as it will save you the trouble of a seal coat. I've had good luck with the "Tiger Flakes" that TFWW and Lee Valley sell, though there are plenty of other options.

There's really nothing magical about SealCoat, though it does contain multiple alcohols with different evaporation rates, and that changes the application and flow-out characteristics. You might want to give Behlen Behkol a go to get similar (or arguably better) application characteristics from flakes.