Re: Is my shelac any good?
thomd
>Real shelac when rubbed on skin like cologne will smell nice after the alcohol flashes off. Like something you wouldn't mind on your candy or fruit.
You can also add a 1/3 volume in a small glass bottle, top up with water and then watch for the precipitate to form. The shelac should come out as a ball/glob, and when removed will be like a taffy, mildly sticky and can be pulled into long strings etc... The water should be only slightly milky no sign of shelac that remained in the solution. This is probably not going to be dramatic with comemrcial stuff since it is usually a very fine cut.
With commercial stuff you really don't know what you are getting. It's most likely higly dilute. I normally take a very small amount on my fingers and rub them together until it dries. It should dry out well, and not be sticky. Thick coats of shelac do not dry well at all. This is probaly your main problem.
I apply shelac in three ways:
Krenov - this is consistant with commercially preparations. This is applied as a fine wash, the idea is really only to reduce fingerprinting. Conservators wax might be applied over top. The point here is that the commercial Shelac is only used because it is capable of providing the the thinnest posible finish, leaving the least trace (therefore not orange shelac based).
Shelac and wax. I follow the Kirby instructions from a few years back. Similar to above but thicker application of wax, and uses real shelac.
French polish. This stuff builds because it is composed of the perfect application of vapourously thin layers of shelac that dry before the next return wipe of the cloth.
So the overall point is that you can't get thick shelac to dry or provide a reasonable surface. It won't dry nicely, even if it is good. It only works properly in very thin coats. So thin you probably won't notice much difference, unless you build many of them. A method I don't use is to spray or brush on numerous thin coats, wait till they dry and then sand and repaint. This may be your best bet. There isn't anything wrong with this appraoch it just isn't the look I am after.
A bunch of products exist that are designed to ape one or another of shelac's properties, but that's a whole other story.