Bottlehead Forum: Tweaking isn't just for electronics..... by Till E.

I've got a recipe for making tack rags somewhere but they're about 79 centavos at paint stores so why bother. It's just a rag made sticky with varnish and driers to pick up dust.

Dry times vary with heat and humidity. I'd go 24 hours in the summer. Shellac, among it's many virtues is very quick drying.

Ouch, that reminds me. You can't brush on shellac the way you're used to. It dries so fast is will actually stick to your brush if you go back over it, although less so with a 1 lb or even 2 lbn cut.Just let it run off the brush onto the work, it will flow out. The real method is "padding" which involves soaking a handi-wipe in shellac, rolling it into a ball, putting the ball inside a "pouch" you make out of another handi-wipe, putting a few drops of mimeral oil on the wipe and then rubbing what comes through the rag onto the work in a circular motion. You should feel slight friction as you go. Too much friction, add some oil. Too easy, the ball is too wet.

If you get good at that, and you will, you have mastered the centuries old technique called "French Polishing".

Dye stain then shellac, then either dye stain OR more shellac. The garnet shellac darkens and makes the color more amber. If you need a color change, then a different dye stain, but always shellac after. You'll note that the shellac coat after dye is more dilute; 1 lb to 1 gallon than the color coat which is 2 lbs to 1 gallon. Finish coates can run as heavy as 5lbs to a gallon! You just want to seal in the stain, not add too much shellac color. For that matter, shellac runs the gamut from "water white", then blonde, then, I think, button to garnet and then there's a really dark one. It has to do with purity and how many times they filter the carapace of the bug, the Lac Bug.Garrett Wade has a table in their catalog. So you could use lighter as well as thinner shellac. Whew!
Try artists colors from the craft store diluted in mineral spirits just to see what happens when you put green over(already sealed) brown to make, yes it's true, a warm orange.

When you wrote 2 ply veneer you meant NBS or at least paper backed, right? And I assume you mean to use contact cement? I ask because the cleaner for the cement, lacquer thinner is a solvent for the finish so be careful. And also be careful sanding edges of the veneer so you don't go through!

And as I always recommend: go to Borders, spend 3 dollars on some coffee and read the wonderful woodworking books published by Taunton Press.

Merry Pranks Website.