My Quest for the Perfect Shellac Brush

 My preferred finish is shellac.  It's relatively easy to apply, not as harsh/unhealthy as many finishes, looks good, easy to fix, and if I want, by using ethanol, I could completely remove it in the future and get back to bare wood.

Paul Sellers is where I really learned about shellac and how to apply it.  I've been using it as a finish on most of my woodworking since 2016.  Little by little I've gotten better at it.  I'd like to share what I have found as helpful

Brush Type and Size - Thanks Don Williams for this.  In some of his writings and on a Popular Woodworking video he did, he discusses using an oval mop artists brush.  I bought two sizes of these, a 3/4" and a 1" version and I think I spent all of $20 on each.  I used my fingers and just felt for the ones that had fine bristles.  This is without a doubt the biggest game changer.  The oval mop style (blue handle brush two photos up) acts like a camber on a plane iron.  The shellac feathers on the wetted surface making it much easier to avoid shellac tracks.  Bar none, switching to this type of bush has made things go much better.  The brushes prior to this were the high end ones from Tools For Working Wood shellac brushes and I'm going to see if I can sell them.  Speaking of sizes, I also have a 2" and 3" brush.  Maybe a 2" brush could be used on a dining table.  I've never used the 3" brush.  I think a 3/4" and 1" brush are all you likely need.

Making Your Own Vs. Commercial Bought

I've done both approaches.  I prefer to make my own.  It's not that hard.  

Which Flakes

I've tried a few different brands.  By far, I think the best (and what Chris Schwartz had blogged about) are the BT&C tiger flakes.  I keep blond, amber, and garnet flakes at home.  When I've dissolved them and go to filter them I don't see any undissolved solids and I've probably made about 20 bathes at this point.  For other brands I do see undissolved solids.  At this point, I'm sticking to just BT&C Tiger Flakes.  Rather recently, I bough from Don Williams some pure shellac wax.  Curious to make a batch of dewaxed shellac and add back in some shellac wax (say 5%) to see how it performs.

Which Solvent to Use

I've made shellac from denatured store bought ethanol, Mohawk and Behalan denatured alcohol designed for shellac, 190 proof ethanol, and 95% isopropanol.  They all work.  There are some slight differences.  Being a chemist, I tend to worry about breathing in chemical vapors.   If I am going to breath in vapors, I'd prefer to breath in just ethanol.  As such, since you can drink 190 Everclear (not sure why you want to as I'm more of a beer and wine person and like the occasional martini) that is my strongly preferred solvent for dissolving shellac.  If you can't get this in your state, via Amazon you can order 190 proof ethanol (for about $100 a gallon) and that would be my route.  I doubt I use a gallon of ethanol per year so annual cost isn't bad.  If ordering on Amazon, do NOT buy the 200 proof ethanol.  Historically, benzene (a carcinogen) was used to azeotropically remove that last bit of water.  As such, don't want to breath in benzene vapors (though as a chemist I can say benzene smells much nicer than either toluene of xylenes) so DON"T buy 200 proof ethanol.  Just purchase the 190 proof stuff if you can't buy 190 proof alcohol at your local liquor store.

My next choice would be the Mohawk solvent.  I think it might be called shellac reducer.  It contains, ethanol, propanol, and butanol so it can't be drank.  It works well but I find the butanol takes a bit longer to evaporate and I can feel a very slight drag in the shellac.  It doesn't stop me from applying shellac every 30 minutes.  It just means if I am waiting to sand it out to denib, I prefer to wait overnight.

Prior to the 2020 pandemic being a problem, I was ahead of the curve in seeing the problem coming because I work in Biotech and have worked at companies that make vaccines so for 20 years I have paid close attention to these kinds of things.  FYI, there were at least 3 near misses prior to the 2020 pandemic.  Anyway, I had stocked up on lots of 95% isopropanol to disinfect.  I didn't use much of the IPA to disinfect.  As such, I had a lot of it in the home.  I have used it to dissolve up 1-1/2 lbs cut of shellac and it worked fine.  It took a bit longer to dry.  I wouldn't recommend it.  What I'm now using my extra IPA for is to clean my brush.  

Denatured ethanol that uses methanol.  This is the stuff you find readily in big box stores.  Methanol is a poison and is bad stuff.  I really avoid using it.  Not good to breath it in.  Yes, it works but I personally would avoid it.

Watch Paul Sellers and watch Don Williams and then practice, practice, practice.  Often you will hear folks say you can't go over a wet shellac surface.  No and yes.  You can go over it sort of.  I understand why folks say you can't but if you spend some time using it you will figure this out.

Personally, I like garnet shellac on cherry and blond shellac on maple or pine.  Again, found this by experimentation.  All shellac looks good on finished wood.  I like to wait close to a week after I've applied the last shellac as the solvent continues to evaporate/degases and the shellac becomes a bit firmer.

I hope some of you find this helpful.  I'm just writing it down to document what I've learned to date.  I haven't invented anything new and Paul Sellers and Don Williams were my best resources for learning how.