A finishing question.

[KennyR]

Hello everyone, first I'd like to thank you all so much for your help so far.  To pay you back if you ever want to fly fish in Utah, let me know I'll hook you up.

I put Shellac on a key shelf I made for near the back door.  It's birch plywood. The problem is the finish is bumpy almost a sandy feel to it. 

Here's my question.  How do I make it have that glass like finish I see sometimes?

Ken Raddon.

 

[Qwas]

How many coats did you put on? I find the first 2 coats come out rough and the 3rd usually comes out better. I always do a light hand sanding with 400 grit between coats.

 

[Dave Rudy]

You could also go a thicker topcoat than shellac.  It is an excellent base coat or sanding sealer.  Why not try poly (wipe-on is easy to use)? It will be more resistant to scratching than shellac as well.

HTH

 

[Scott W.]

.......   How do I make it have that glass like finish I see sometimes?

Ken Raddon.

Ken,

Depending on the cut of shellac you used you will need a few to several more coats. Sand very lightly between with 400 or higher. After the final coat you can wet sand with 1000 -1200 or (my favorite) use some renascence wax applied with 0000 steel wool, let it haze over good then buff with a soft cloth.

I am just finishing up a cradle for a friend and put on the last of 7 coats this evening. I'm going to let it set until the weekend and then apply the wax & buff.

Scott W.

 

[Steveo48]

Ditto the steel wool and wax.

My shop teacher had us use (ok, it was '77) the coarse brown paper towels that you find in school bathrooms as our final abrasive.  We use them now as the final abrasive on wood pen projects with high oil content like cocobolo.  I'm not sure how it would work on shellac though.

Steve

 

[Ned]

My shop teacher had us use (ok, it was '77) the coarse brown paper towels that you find in school bathrooms as our final abrasive.  We use them now as the final abrasive on wood pen projects with high oil content like cocobolo.

In 2001 I got similar advice from a cabinetmaker.  He used brown paper supermarket bags.

Ned

 

[Michael Kellough]

I put Shellac on a key shelf I made for near the back door.  It's birch plywood. The problem is the finish is bumpy almost a sandy feel to it. 

Here's my question.   How do I make it have that glass like finish I see sometimes?

Ken Raddon.

Did you thoroughly sand after the first coat? Raising the grain and then sanding once more is good to do before appling an oil base finish. That type of finish won't lift the fibers much. Shellac will raise the grain again so you really have to sand thoroughly after the first coat. Since you'll go through the first coat in places and re-expose raw would you'll have to do it all again. After the second sanding put down several coats, maybe with a heavier cut solution, so you have a thick enough coating to sand the finish smooth with 400 or finer. Top that with a couple of thin cut coats or wipe on poly.

 

[Tinker]

Hello everyone, first I'd like to thank you all so much for your help so far.  To pay you back if you ever want to fly fish in Utah, let me know I'll hook you up.

Ken Raddon.

My question is: Which end of the line? ???
Tinker

 

[KennyR]

Tinker,  which ever end you'd like.

I did only two coats.

Now if it is just a birch plywood wont the sanding sand right through that thin veneer of birch?

BTW it is a five or six pound cut that I am using (if memory serves).  Is the pound cut written on the can?

Ken.

 

[Dan Lyke]

Kenny, I believe that Zinnser's standard is a 2lb cut, and I'm just speakin' from book learning here because thus far I've just applied 2lb cut straight from the can, but many of the sources I've run across suggest thinning that to a 1lb cut unless you know what you're doing.

So if you're truly using a 6lb cut, I'd expect a really shiny thick layer with lots of height variation in it, because that's what 3 coats of the 2lb cut does to me.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Tinker,  which ever end you'd like.

I did only two coats.

Now if it is just a birch plywood wont the sanding sand right through that thin veneer of birch?

BTW it is a five or six pound cut that I am using (if memory serves).  Is the pound cut written on the can?

Ken.

Since you are worried about sanding through that very thin veneer it sounds like you might not have sanded much at all. There is usually enough thickness to sand with 150 and then 220. Hopefully that is enough. If you really didn't sand, the grain from birch ply will stick up like whiskers when you use an aqueous solution. The alcohol in shellac will raise the grain too just not quite as bad. Since you already have some finish on there go ahead and sand thoroughly with 220 until it feels smooth. 5# is good for building a sandable thickness. If you are worried about sanding through veneer build a thick enough coat that you only sand shellac. If you are using the regular shellac it is very easy to sand compared to the de-waxed stuff.

A 5 pound cut is heavy so it will be a lot easier to flow out if you thin it. Just add an equal volume of alcohol to make it a 2 1/2 # solution and see how that flows. You can always thin it more. It's too bad you can't use foam brushes with shellac because it is very difficult to brush out, hence the recommendations to cut it really thin, so thin that brush streaks can't make visible grooves in the coat.