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Stewmac no longer carries the ColorTone Dewaxed Extra Pale Shellac Flakes. I was buying a pound at a time and I am fresh out. Does anyone know of a good quality replacement to this product? Stewmac has flakes but not at the pound price and the color is different so I need some suggestions from some experienced members. I use the shellac as a sealer then finish with Seagrave lacquer.

Here is a sample...I finished this Harp Guitar last month.



Thanks
Michael

WOW .. nice work Michael ... must have been fun gettting the two necks to line up. I just set the neck on Belair harp number two of mine yesterday ...

Shellac .. try www.woodessence.com in Canada . they have super blonde flakes - I have some, very pale.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Have a look at the Wood Essence site.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Tony beat me to the draw...............!!!

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I like "Wood Finishing Enterprises"

http://www.woodfinishingenterprises.com/index.html

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I just bought some shellac from these guys

http://woodworker.com/seedlac-mssu-848- ... archmode=2

They also sell other french polish supplies like Paraffin Oil, Cheesecloth, etc...

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Jim Hansen

you also might look at http://shellac.net/
Oh BTW, Beautiful guitar! I keep thinking I'll tackle on of these one day, we'll see.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

French polishing is a large part of my business. I've received great shellac from several vendors. I've also received old shellac on occasion. The paler shellacs have a much shorter shelf life--even as flakes. If you're just using it as a sealer, you might want to consider using a darker shellac. If your flakes won't fully dissolve, leaving little globs of jelly in the solution, even after several days, throw it out, and shop elsewhere. Some dusty sediment at the bottom is not an issue. Plan on running your shellac through a coffee filter before you use it.

I've had consistently good results dealing with Vijay at http://www.shellacfinishes.com/ . His shellac flakes come with an expiration date. Even so, store your flakes in a cool, dry place, and pay attention to how they dissolve. Old shellac is prone to crazing.

I just had a batch of Garnet shellac leave jelly in the shellac, and I filtered out the jelly, and the shellac is working fine. I've never had that happen before.

As far as shellac having an expiration date, I can't imagine why. I have a large cardboard can of Behlen shellac flakes that came from my dad's shop. He built a chest of drawers in the 1950's and used it to finish the wood. I have used those flakes and continue to use them, they work as well as my latest purchase.

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Do you have a Woodcraft store near you? They have flakes by the pound. They usually have some real light stuff, plantina etc. I buy mine as buttons from www.shellac.net

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Another happy customer of Vijay's here. I haven't tried his Platina but it should be the clearest shellac he has. I have found that water contamination of the alcohol is the problem not the age of the Shellac when I have had problems with it disolving.

David: you sound very experienced. My comments were aimed at beginners. That said, you might want to read more about shellac shelf life. I learned the hard way. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I think you may too. I had finishes that crazed. I changed alcohol. I changed my process. I changed my prep. I changed my shellac. I did all of these again, and then I started reading about shellac shelf life. Now: no more problems. Garnet shellac that doesn't fully dissolve? For a $200 bonus, I wouldn't use that.

Mark-- re alcohol: I use Remet SDA 190 23A. I buy it once a year. If there's a better DA, I'd love to know about it. At any rate, the alcohol I use is not a variable.

Thanks everyone. I made my decision and placed my order. Also thanks for the compliments. Tony, the neck placement geometry was very difficult but like anything else, you have to plan it out, think it through, pray a little, take a deep breath, let it out slowly then JUST DO IT.
Michael

Pretty much my own experience:
I have some Seedlac that must be almost 20 years old. A few months ago I mixed it and it was perfectly fine, dissolved reasonably quickly and dries fine once put on wood. Button Polish also seems to keep well, although I'm not sure that it will last as long as the Seedlac. I don't know because I've only had the buttons around 7 or 8 years.
However some processed Pale Shellac just gummed up in the bottle, I had bought it 3 years previously. It was fine 6 months ago.

The shellac that I use, both the flakes and seedlac, is not de-waxed, of course the seedlac is as close to the raw product as you can get.

The Garnet that left the jelly was a de-waxed product.

So I did the reading that Eric suggested and the de-waxed is more prone to have a short shelf life.
I stand corrected. Thanks for the schooling!

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Wow, last night I was reading this discussion and went to shellacfinishes.com and ordered some platina shellac flakes. This morning I found an email that had arrived sometime late last night letting me know that my order had shipped. Now that's fast service. And on the weekend too!