Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Wowzers-2
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
So Jim Matthews challenged me for a photo of the curly red maple I ran through the Shellix on my upgraded planer (JET JPM-13.
So . . .
I sanded one side of the board to 180, left the other side alone, resawed the piece in half and put a wipe of shellac on both.
OK, Jim, can you figure which side, A or B, was sanded?
Anyone else can jump in if they choose.
[sorry, no prizes, especially in a 50/50 situation] 
Re: Prize?
Henry (Raleigh NC)
Mark. You've won the prize already - the Shelix head.
Impressive demo.
Henry
That's impressive
Jim Matthews
This stuff is cantankerous.
It may be just the lighting, but I would say A is planed and B is sanded.
****
Do you deal with Shellac prior to adding color?
Re: That's impressive
Joe shelton
No, A is sanded.
Color
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
A spitcoat of shellac will go a long way toward getting more even color on figured woods, but I rarely use stain. Prefer the natural color of the wood.
Jim
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
gets the virtual plush bunny. "A" is the side that's raw out of the planer.
The planer will get a lot more use now since a large percentage of my wood stock has a lot of figure, both the red maple and a bunch of walnut that had anthracnose (sp) that produced twisted grain and white sapwood incursions. Previously, to prevent serious torn grain, I had to dimension this stuff with the P-Max which is great but a slow, labor intensive method.
Re: Wowzers-2
David Weaver
Right side (looking at a tiny picture on a phone)
Re: Wowzers-2
David Weaver
once I was off the phone to a bigger screen, I see I was late in responding.
But you can see the difference pretty easily with a wipe.
If the finish build goes a few more coats, then it gets hard to see the difference between the two.
On the sanded coat, if several coats are done at once without a wash, it will really absorb a lot of shellac. If the first coat dries, and then the others follow, obviously not as much.
The nice thing about the planed piece is that it won't absorb that much no matter what.
Jim gets the virtual plush bunny.
Jim Matthews
Izzit anatomically correct?
Kudos on getting a finish like this.
I'm drawn to highly figured wood, but loathe to work with the stuff.
Re: IZZIT
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
Sure
Problem I have with figured stuff is not letting it take over the piece. Too much and it visually disrupts the form and design.
Got some cherry with nice figure on part of several boards. Glued up the top with the figure under control on the right side
so continued it down into the drawer front