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 Post subject: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:58 pm 
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Cocobolo
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Anybody ever tried/had experience with nitro over a shellac sealer?

I'm finishing up a quilted honduran mahogany/carpathian guitar with curly maple bindings and don't want to stain. I like the color the shellac gives the mahogany (and a subtle darkening of the bindings) but the customer has requested nitro back/sides with french polished top. The vinyl sealer doesn't color the wood as much as the shellac and is the reason for my question.

thanks
SR

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 Post subject: Re: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:26 pm 
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Koa
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Im not a nitro man but I believe shellac is a perfectly acceptable sealer under nitro.


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 Post subject: Re: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:34 pm 
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Koa
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No probblems.

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 Post subject: Re: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:07 pm 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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Piece of cake - works great.


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 Post subject: Re: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 8:19 am 
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Cocobolo
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Shellac works fine under nitro.

I use it to seal spruce tops and I spray vinyl sealer everywhere else. The shellac does a better job of blocking spruce pitch which can cause micro pitting in nitro lacquer.

Mark


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 Post subject: Re: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:14 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Blanchard wrote:
The shellac does a better job of blocking spruce pitch which can cause micro pitting in nitro lacquer.

Mark


I have always wondered what caused that. I'll be sure to use a shellac sealer on spruce in the future. Thanks Mark.


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 Post subject: Re: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 1:42 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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the "lac" in lacquer is Shellac !
That was used as the base ingredient at first!
may still be!
But they add plastizers& all kind of stuff to make it more durable and less suseptible to sweat & heat!
it works great under Nitro!!!!!!!!!!! bliss

Please excuse my spellings!!!

mike

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 Post subject: Re: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:27 am 
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Cocobolo
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thanks everybody. I thought it would work but wanted to be sure. I actually normally fire a light coat around the edges of the top prior to binding purfling to save small fibers from being lost with the taping process. Then I usually sand it off prior to finishing. Now I won't have to be quite so judicious when final sanding the top.

thanks again.
SR

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 Post subject: Re: Nitro over shellac??
PostPosted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 3:46 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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The one thing to watch is that you don't put the shellac on too thick as that can cause checking if exposed to cold too rapidly. Other then that I thought that shellac was pretty much the norm. The old spit coat. Isn't putting on orange shellac the way to get the vintage/ aged color on a spruce top?


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