I've done a little work with shellac and generally don't like the results I get. I'm trying it again, however, on a cedar blanket chest so help me out:
It generally seems a lot more time intensive than it sounds in the articles and forums I've read. I start by brushing on (Zinser "clear" by the way) with a good quality china bristle brush and follow up with the pad.
Runs seem to be best left until hard. I used a razor blade to scrape runs and drips flat followed by gray abrasive pad before the first pad coat. I wet it more than I have in the past and replenished more often. This helped. How wet should my pad be?
Had fewer runs and drips than with the brush but still have them at corners and edges and will have to do the razor blade trick again before next coat.
I applied pretty heavy pressure while padding. Should this be the case? It seemed like I had to to get the shellac out of the pad onto the surface not because it was sticking.
What else am I missing?