How do you sand shellac without the paper corning up in seconds?

[Chris Fournier]

Hi Jim, my intentions in what i stated and beleive and practice is the waste of shellac in doing such. If you want to use lac as a pore filler then you can just heat a spatula, as wide as needed or wanted, draw it across the wood surface and remove the excess while filling the pores. As long as the surface is flat, the operation goes as quickly as if filling a dent with lac sticks and removing the excess. Just be sure not to have the blade so hot it burns the wood, with a little practice, you an fill a 4'x8' sheet using a 6" spatula [stiff kind]in about 1/2 hour. after that, any thin film still present can be removed or taken care of by using a alcohol on a balled rag to make perfectly smooth ok?

If by chance you need the wood to be perfectly open, "then" you can use fine paper to take what little excess may remain off the surface with out wasting the bulk of your lac using other methods.

Another method i use is mixing 4-6F pumice with 3-4 lb fresh shellac and making up a filler and applying it and taking the excess off with a plastic card etc., with this method though you don't want to apply more than can be removed quickly say 1 sq. ft at a time at most. The Removed excess can then be put back in container, with a little alcohol, preferably anhydrous isopropyl, and used on the next job. Thus eliminating or drastically reducing the waste of lac being used and applied by other methods mentioned.

A six inch spatula that you can keep hot enough to grade shellac on a 4' X 8' surface? Do you have a video reference of this technique by chance? I am not saying that it's not possible but I am a sceptic having burned in a bit of shellac in my day.

[Jim Becker]

Sheldon, I don't disagree with you and can honestly state that shellac wouldn't be my own choice or recommendation for filling grain. Nonetheless, some folks will choose to do so for their own personal reasons.

[guy shiloh]

Anyone use Abranet sanding discs?

[sheldon pettit]

A six inch spatula that you can keep hot enough to grade shellac on a 4' X 8' surface? Do you have a video reference of this technique by chance? I am not saying that it's not possible but I am a sceptic having burned in a bit of shellac in my day.

LOL. you use a propane torch, not an oven or hot melt knife. Remember your not removing alot of excess since its already applied pretty uniformly not in a clump of shellac stick. All your doing is warming the 4-6-8" blade enough to pull excess of while packing the pores with what builds up on the knife as you move along. No.... there are no show you guides to do so but it would only take spraying a 1' board or so and testing yourself before moving onto bigger surfaces. Just make sure its a non flexible blade [thick type] and you heat it enough to do the job without burning the wood, just as you would do if burning in on bare wood with a lac stick ok? Again, the wood must be as flat as the blade to work properly, a wavy wood surface won't work!! I only used this method on flat surfaces.

[sheldon pettit]

Used them alot up till 06, found they were great for removing old finishes, didn't care for them as much for actually sanding the wood though. I prefer wet or dry for that. Last longer and sands faster, especially the heavier grits.

[Prashun Patel]

I use Abranet both on turned and flat work. It's good, but there are IMHO just as good 'conventional' sandpapers.

The screens won't corn up as easily, but they shouldn't be used wet.

[David Weaver]

One other side comment, to go along with the shellac being dry when you sand it.

You'll get a lot less plugging if you use the paper / sanding block only in one direction and lift it and repeat. The important part is probably just that you lift it and don't mash the paper back and forth over semi-sticky dust. I can't remember if I brush off the paper by hand at the end of each stroke, but I can scuff a large panel before having to deal with much plugging it.

If I just keep a block on a finish going back and forth, it loads almost immediately.

[Stew Hagerty]

Wetsand with mineral spirits.
On rare occasions I've been able to dry sand shellac without corning. But most of the time it requires wet sanding.

I have had good success wet sanding shellac using paraffin oil with either (or both) wet/dry paper or steel wool. After you get it cut back to where you want it, just wipe off the excess oil, then remove the remainder of the oil with a mineral spirits soaked rag. Then just continue with the top-coat of your choice.

Paraffin oil wet sanding is also a great technique for non french polished items. After wiping dry, apply a couple coats of a good paste wax and you have a great looking deep "hand rubbed" finish.

[Alan Lightstone]

I gave up on using shellac as grain filler. Just wound up being too much work. I'm much happier using oil-based filler (although I have a can of water based that I'm waiting to try.) It's just quicker and easier to fill the pores with. JMHO. Has other technique issues, but it works and looks nice when finished.

Still dying to try the plaster-of-paris approach, though.

I'll leave the big boys to argue about sanding the shellac. Learned something with the scraper approach, though Scott.

[guy shiloh]

Had to look up IMHO !I thought it was a brand of sandpaper.ha ha I love abranet ,they last a long time and don't fill up.I do use regular discs for finishing.

[Alex Borshov]

Wetsand with mineral spirits.
On rare occasions I've been able to dry sand shellac without corning. But most of the time it requires wet sanding.

Is this a good approach for Zinsser SealCoat? I'm not sure if this is quite the same as shellac. I used SealCoat to prep some birch ply for paint and the sand paper quickly plugged up, leaving gunk (corn?) stuck to the plywood that was difficult to remove.

[Prashun Patel]

Sealcoat is 1.5# dewaxed shellac. You can wetsand it with MS. Reading back thru this thread, I see that I'm in the minority in wetsanding shellac - so please don't go just by me. When I sand shellac - as a sealer - I sand about as 'aggressively' as when I'm rubbing out; I'm sanding for smoothness to touch. To this end, it's pretty quick. Each area really only requires a quick pass or three.

[Scott Holmes]

Actually Seal coat is a 2# cut 100% de-waxed shellac. The other Zinsser shellacs are 3# cuts. I don't know the cut of the spray can shellac; it too is 100% de-waxed.