Shellac cut

[Dave Bagwill]

Question: I'm looking at a sentence right now that says this:

Take a cup of 2 lb cut shellac
Mix with 2 cups of solvent

And the result will be about a .67 lb cut.

Is that right? If you have a cup of 2 lb shellac, and mix with an equal volume of solvent, don't you get 2 cups of 1 lb shellac? Then add another cup of solvent - now there are 3 cups of ...ah, I see.

So if you wanted to take a 3 lb cut down to about a 3/4 lb cut?
One cup of 3 lb shellac, with equal solvent, yields 2 cups of 1 1/2 lb.
One more cup of solvent yields 3 cups of....1 lb shellac?
One more cup of solvent yields 4 cups of..... 3/4 lb shellac?

Is my math correct?
Thanks

[Ray Ussery]

Uhhhh....I'd have to take my shoes off...? :)

[John Link]

Correct Dave.

[Dave Bagwill]

Thanks John. I hope we caught Ray before the shoes came off..

[Lonnie B]

Are you doing a French Polish I haven't heard of?

[Dave Bagwill]

No, I'm doing a technique I learned from Brian Burns, and which is used by a number of luthiers. It is akin to 'padding on' the shellac, but once learned (and I'm learning), a very professional finish can be done - well let me leave it there, I want to prove it to myself first.

[Lonnie B]

Hmmmm!!!! Very Interesting. Sounds very much like the technique used for French Polish. I finished my last three builds with Tru-oil (a gun stock finish) works good for guitars as well. But am going to use the French Polish method from now on. Was hoping that was what you were doing. I'm not going to spray Nitro. Don't have the booth but I do have COPD. So I'm sticking to the hand finishes. Gonna be watching you Buddy gotta find out how this works.