WoodCentral Forums

Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge

Finishing OOPS! Now what?

Posts

Finishing OOPS! Now what?

#1

Steve Kubien

Finishing OOPS! Now what?

Steve Kubien

>Hi everybody,

I am in middle of making (seems I could post 12 meassges per day and start each one that way) bowsaw in the spirit of Bugbear's plan. I've got all of the parts shaped the way I want and I started applying amber/orange shellac to the maple uprights. About 5 coats later I asked myself, "What the h*ll have I done?!?!?!?!" I really do not like the colour. Now, I want to get rid of the colour and just put clear stuff on. Can I do this with large amounts of alcohol? Am I stuck scraping and sanding? Do I scrape away most of the shellac and then use alcohol? I would like to get really close to the original maple colour and just clear coat it with something because I think it will look really good with the redheart cross member, knobs and paddle.

Thanks in advance!

Steve Kubien

Re: Finishing OOPS! Now what?

#2

Re: Finishing OOPS! Now what?

Patrick Gibbons, Houston, TX

>I've had problems in the past with applying shellac and found myself in a similar situation. I used a thin hand scraper and found it easy to remove the shellac. However I wanted to apply a new coating of shellac and so I was not too concerned about removing all of the old. It is very possible you will not be able to completely remove the shellac (and thus the tint) from joints and other hard-to-get-at locations. To completely remove color you may have to take everything down to new wood again. Do you really dislike the amber color that much?

Re: Finishing OOPS! Now what?

#3

Steve Kubien

Looks easier for me...

Steve Kubien

>...in that there are no joints to clean out. I have not assembled the saw yet and all I have to deal with are the uprights. I do not mind leaving 'some' of the amber colour. Right now it is just too much for my tastes, especially after seeing the uprights beside the redheart pieces. I do have some curved card scrapers which should help minimize any faceting that would happen using rectangular scrapers. I'll give that a try before trying anything else.

Thanks Patrick,

Steve Kubien

Re: Finishing OOPS! Now what?

#4

Re: Finishing OOPS! Now what?

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Lots of alcohol and rags will take it off, too. Just stop when you like the color. Application of the new blond shellac will help to thin out and spread around whatever orange shellac is left.

Re: Finishing OOPS! Now what?

#5

Re: Finishing OOPS! Now what?

Deirdre Saoirse Moen

>I personally have never much cared for the color of the orange or garnet shellacs; I stick to the superblond.

👍 This page answered my questions

Your vote helps other woodworkers quickly find the answers and techniques that actually work in the shop.