We were very lucky and dodged major damage from a big bullet named Ike last week. Although we were without power for about eight days, (it just came back this PM), we could have come out a lot worse.
I had a pound of blonde shellac flakes in my freezer. When the power failed they got put in a cooler along with some ice. Needless to say, when I found them they were waterlogged. I spread them on a cookie sheet and let the Texas sun dry them. They are kind of in one large “cookie” now.
My question: can they be used or are they ruined?
By the way, there are a lot of loblolly pine, red oak and white oak logs laying around my neighborhood. I’m going “shopping” for stock to re-saw tomorrow…
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The shellac is still usable. Over time with exposure to moisture (humitidy, etc) shellac, especially dewaxed tends to clump up. This doesn't have any affect on it to my knowledge - it only requres a little more time to dissolve in alcohol.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Why did you have them in the freezer?
I read that shellac flakes degrade over time. With the heat and humidity here I figured they would last longer in the freezer.
It seems to work for coffee & hamburger... `~<;^)-+<
Shellac flakes are good indefinitely, IIRC. However, once mixed, the shellac solution has a shelf life of 6-12 months. The way to see if the shellac is still good or not is to put a few drops on a piece of glass; it should dry within a few hours and have a smooth look. If it has a rippled look or does not dry hard, it is no good.-If you didn't learn something new today, you're not looking hard enough!
That's not quite true - the super-blonde dewaxed shellacs do go bad after a period of time in the flake form. That's supposedly because of the bleach used to make the super-blonde type; orange shellac, amber shellac, and the unpurified grades (button lac, stick lac) have not been bleached and will last indefinitely.
I found this out first hand with some super-blonde flakes that I'd been storing with some supplies in an attic. The attic is partially air-conditioned, but still gets up to 90 degrees or so on a hot day. This shellac would not harden sufficiently for sanding, even applied 6 hours after dissolving. A fresh pound of the same brand solved the problem.
One other thought - probably not a good idea to expose shellac flakes to the UV radiation from the sun for any appreciable length of time. The UV will cause unpredictable oxidation reactions to occur in the material, and might cause some problems.
Here's an alternative that's easy - heat uncooked (dry) rice in a pan on very low heat (or when you get your power back, in an oven at 200F), allow it to remain hot to the touch for about 20 minutes in the pan, then seal it in one of those danish cookie tins or a tupperware container until it cools down. Presto - instant dessicant, and it works really well to dry out all sorts of stuff. I use it to dry out walnut husks that I'm later going to use to make dye.
I hadn't heard that about the super-blond. Thanks for the info!-If you didn't learn something new today, you're not looking hard enough!
I don't think that's quite right. The super blonde is still an orange shellac and has not been bleached--it's just filtered more intensively with activated charcoal. Actual bleached shellac is never available in flakes. It's shelf life after being precipitated from the bleach solution is a matter of hours or days, not weeks. Consequently it's only available as liquid shellac, where it actually lasts longer than it would as flakes, though still not as long as liquid orange shellac. Zinsser sells it as clear shellac, the product it used to call white shellac. Clear has poorer moisture resistance than unbleached shellac.
But excessive heat can do in shellac flakes on any kind. I think that may be what happened to your super blonde.
Steve - Might be right about that. My source for this was the 1830's chlorinated bleaching in alkaline solution, which was then precipitated into granular form. Certainly wouldn't be a shock to find out that the current process is quite a bit different.
Edit - After reading Steve's post, I was curious, so I did a bit of 'net searching. Steve's right about modern shellac processes - the super-blondes are charcoal filtered to remove the most of the color. I found this write-up by Zinsser, which is very informative to anyone interested in shellac's properties, manufacturing methods, and Zinsser's products:
http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/author/zinsser/shellac.html
Edited 9/22/2008 12:12 pm ET by dkellernc
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