Waxed?

[Dave Bagwill]

I'd like to pad shellac on a Port Orford top.
I have a can of amber shellac, and I've been told that, since it has rested undisturbed for a couple of months, that the wax has settled to the bottom of the can, leaving a de-waxed shellac on top.
Is this true? If so I can simply dip out the shellac without stirring, and I'm good.

[Dave Bagwill]

Just found the answer:

"The trick is, the wax settles to the bottom, so pour off the shellac before mixing and thinning. Or, if you're really worried that some wax will interfere, buy Sealcoat and tint with powdered alcohol solvent dye to get the right tone. "

[peter havriluk]

This seems ambiguous to me. In the interests of retaining sanity, I'd spend what I needed to purchase unwaxed shellac and be done with worrying.

[Dave Bagwill]

Yeah, but I have the can of waxed Amber, which I need. So if the wax is at the bottom, all I need to do is descant what I need from the top of the can and hopefully, Bob will be my uncle
Though if I thought about it (heaven forbid), since I am going to be using the shellac as the finish, and not putting anything on top of it, the wax would not make a difference anyway.
IOW this is another of my much-maligned "much ado about nothing" series lol

[peter havriluk]

Dave, it makes perfect sense to me after I understood the context. It feels good to me to 'run what ya brung' if no sleep is sacrificed.

[John Parchem]

Yeah, but I have the can of waxed Amber, which I need. So if the wax is at the bottom, all I need to do is descant what I need from the top of the can and hopefully, Bob will be my uncle
Though if I thought about it (heaven forbid), since I am going to be using the shellac as the finish, and not putting anything on top of it, the wax would not make a difference anyway.
IOW this is another of my much-maligned "much ado about nothing" series lol

To emphasize Dave point. If your final top coat is shellac, waxed shellac makes a great finish. There are some very highly regarded finishers that use shellac with wax in it for French Polish. Also the way to get dewaxed shellac is to let it sit and decant the top shellac as the wax settles. Another bit of experience I personally find that I can finish an instrument in few calendar days with a French Polish technique than padding on a finish. The flipside of that is the FP takes more of my time. When padding the shellac goes on relatively thick. I can only do 3-4 applications a day before it gets too soft to work with. If the the finish is too thick the air layer of the shellac can dry sealing in alcohol. That is why shellac finish sometimes craze. So when I pad, I apply a set of 4 coats over three or 4 days. With a good FP technique by working the shellac the layers remain very thin and not too soft, so that one can continuously work on the instrument until finished.