Official Luthiers Forum!

What I have is the Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac Traditional Finish & Sealer Clear. What I keep seeing recommended is the Seal Coat as a dewaxed or wax-free shellac. Is this stuff alright to use for instruments under lacquer? All it shows on the side is that "This can contains a 3-lb cut of shellac in denatured alcohol." and under ingredients only Ethanol and Isopropanol are listed.

So am I OK with this?

_________________
Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Wes,



The Traditional sealer and finisher is not wax free.



But the sealcoat is as you can see on the can.

The Traditional sealer and finish is a 3 lb cut. You can de-wax it by pouring it into a glass jar, letting is sit for a couple of days (you will see a milky haze at the bottom of the jar, this is the wax) and than pouring out the wax free shellac, but be careful not to pour out the wax with the shellac, go slow. Wax is part of the seed-lac and can be removed during processing but of course this adds to the cost of the product.

The sealcoat is a 2 lb cut of wax free shellac (and what ever else they put in it to make it last as long as it does)

I wouldn't use the traditional sealer under lacquer or any other finish for that matter. It would be fine for jigs I guess though but the wax will cause adhesion problems for any other finish.

Get some of the sealcoat and you're good to go.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Thanks, Rod!

_________________
Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Even dewaxed, there are other additives in Bulls eye that doesn't make dry as hard as a good shellac. Keep it for window trim, jigs and so on. But not on instruments. Seal Coat is OK, mixing your own from good quality flakes is best if you intend to use it as a finish.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Right on Laurent. I've tried a lot of things and nothing dries better and harder, shellac-wise, as very fresh (less than a month old is all I use) hand mixed shellac.

_________________
"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Just out of curiosity who all has French polished both with fresh cut shellac as well as Seal coat and tested harness of the two and what were your findings. I have. Comparing several batches of fresh cut shellac and Seal Coat Universal Sealer and I have to say that from batch to batch both finished out reasonably close in dent resistance after 2 weeks. I used the drop bearing method measuring the dent depth left from a small steel bearing dropped in a tube from a consistent height the variance between the two averaged .0001” and the winner was the unexpected contender. I have done this test many times over the years I have been using Seal Coat. Sometimes Seal Coat wins. Some times fresh cut shellac wins. Just my findings! Recently at the suggestion of Colin I have tried Liberon pail pre mixed French polish and it did out perform both in two different runs. Two runs does not really give a definitive sample but I hear this argument about how fresh cut is always superior in hardness. My testing does not hold this to be necessarily true. I suspect, no I know there can be variances from batch of flakes to batch of flakes.

I belive that applicatioin of a given prodcuct determins as much or more of the finish hardness, not just the media.

I spray shellac before and after pore filling, and as a sealer before the varnish. Seal-coat dries hard, sands to a fine powder, but feels more gummy than fresh shellac I make from Behlen's or LMI flakes, similar cut. That's after a few hours drying, or possibly overnight.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/