I have just purshased dewaxed flakes. and am new to shellac. Should I use a coffee grinder to get finer flakes. Trying to mix a quart mason jar at a time what percentage of flakes to denatured to acheive a 2 lb cut, or do I need to buy a small scale? I am about to finish many different table tops and spindle columns. mostly with quilting, curl,and burl. The woods are cherry,maple,purpleheart,sassafrass,walnut burl, and a couple of others woods slipping my mind. I was planning on just straight 2 lb cut of garnet flakes but I also have some orange flakes. Any help is much appreciated.
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Take your mason jar and fill the jar about one inch deep and add the alcohol to about 3 inches deep, seal the jar shake it and let it desolve overnight. Your mixture does not have to be very precise. You could also use the big jars for storing food that have the oldfashoned bail lids and mix bigger quantaties. Anyway check out the back issues of FW magazine there are several good articles on mixing and using shellac. Hope this helps a little.
Troy
Forgot to mention you don't need to grind the flakes.
Troy
Fine flakes may form a big gob in the bottom of the jar that will take forever to dissolve. It's ok to shake the jar to help free it up and get it dissolved.
Pete
First, Google 'mixing shellac' and you'll get an overview of it. For a 2 lb. cut, you'll mix 2 pounds of flakes into one gallon of denatured alcohol. But if you need less then you can easily solve the ratio by doing a bit of algebra. I find that it helps to take the amount of flakes you want to dissolve and put them in a plastic bag. Then gently whack it a few times with a mallet and this will 'grind' the flakes into smaller chunks. Yes, it will end up a big gooey mess on the bottom of the jar, but that's normal. Just take a clean stick and gently stir it back up into the alcohol a few times and over the course of a day or two, it will dissolve. It's a wonderful finish but it takes a learning curve. Read as much as you can about it.
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