27 Wood Finishing Simplified with Joe L?Erario Shellac finishes Shellac has been around a long time ? longer even than Larry King ? who was once court jester to Nebuchadnezzar. Shellac is the only natural finish on the market. Orange shellac comes that way from the refining process and it?s great for rendering a warm antique look, especially on wood that has been stained brown. White shellac, now called clear, (even though it?s more of a dirty white color due to the bleaching process it undergoes to get rid of the orange tone), is best for those finishes where an amber luster is not necessary. Shellac comes from the laccifer lacca insect, or, parasite that enjoys meals of sap from Banyan trees in India. Shellac can be purchased in dry-flake form or liquid. Shellac was the major finishing material used throughout time up to about 1850. It may perhaps be best represented through the French polishing technique. French polishing was the standard finish used throughout the world. It?s a finish that is applied with a linen rag containing a wool core that has been soaked in shellac. (See pages 100-103.) You know, before sanding sealers and wood conditioners, the one true sealer that was available was good old shellac. You could walk into a store and buy orange or white shellac. No problem. Then, all of a sudden, there was a time in the late 1980s when it became increasingly hard to find. I would always get, ?They don?t use that much anymore,? from the hardware store gents. And I would be saying to them, and myself: ?I use it! There?s gotta be other people out there who use it too!? Then, when I was on television at the beginning of the 1990s, (and I know I have no real proof of this) all of a sudden it was out there again all over the shelves! Shellac was all over the place, albeit with a changed ?under-label? name. It was now called Shellac, sealer-undercoater. Orange was now amber and white shellac was labeled as being clear. Could this have anything to do with my always saying, show after show: ?applying a wash-coat of orange shellac over your stained piece of furniture will give it a nice amber glow?? And you know I still wonder. But to be honest, I can?t attribute this change solely to myself. I mean, I know it was not only me who brought it into vogue ? but after all ? I did do over 152 television shows and I would say that more than two-thirds of those shows involved shellac. This, combined with various companies coming out with what they called sanding sealers, the kind of which I touched upon earlier ? the kind that the bosses? daughters were using on the woodwork that I wound up fixing ? in conjunction with the word sealer having become so firmly etched in the mind of the weary consumer, just may have convinced the shellac companies to change the wording on their cans. Of course, people such as myself have always known of shellac?s true brilliance. Shellac may be used as a sealer if you are going to use an oil-based stain on your wood, but should not be used if you are going to use water-based stains, varnishes or polyurethanes. Shellac is the beginners? finish and the most basic ingredient to all finishing. Shellac is great for everything save for tabletops and outdoor wood. It remains my favorite finish because of its dynamic nature. As a novice you should know, regardless of what the label of the can will say about not using shellac as a sealer, that shellac has been and always may be used as a sealer for oil stains or as a sealer for raw wood before applying your varnish topcoat. You may also use shellac as a sealer/undercoat for lacquer finishes, but never use shellac under polyurethane.