Thread: Rubbing a spirit based stain onto shellac seal coat

Use waterdye or turpentine based stain. spirit dye or stain isn't the best to use with shellac. Not my favourite with veneers either.

Thanks, can you tell me why they're not suitable for shellac? Or veneers for that matter?

Compatible with shellac so will pull off with the shellac. Or will end up a complete mess if used over shellac based sealer.

Can react with glue of veneer (depending on the glue used). Could also give the same results as you have encountered with the craters in other post.

I see, what I might try is using a thin sealing cut to lock in the grain, apply filler, then rub in the stain. After allowing it to dry, I apply the shellac basecoat, then follow with the same dye as a dry-sprayed toner like I've seen done in a shellac finishing video.

You need to colour with a non compatible stain or dye (water or turpentine). NOT a compatible product. Non compatible (water or turpentine) will not pull off into the shellac and create problems.

You are using and mixing wrong products hense your problem in the Repel spots..... thread

You 're in Australia with Australian products which vary quite dramatcally to products in USA and UK etc even though on the surface they may seem the same.

Watch an Aussie video if you can find one or read an Aussie book which has Aussie products and advice.

Cheers - Neil

Sorry Neil I didn't mean to cause frustration for you! Just considering all my options here.

Well the finish I did in the "repel spots" thread consisted of timbermate filler, spirit-based stain and Colortone WB lacquer from StewMac in the US. No shellac. Pretty non-compatible solvents there. Maybe I'm inviting trouble by mixing US and Aussie products (although the Americans seem to have started raving about timbermate) but as far as I know nobody in Australia makes a sprayable water based lacquer, which due to certain factors is ideal for my finish. To complicate things I'm not entirely sure an oil based stain wouldn't cause adhesion problems with the lacquer.

The reason I was considering spirit stain with shellac is because I tried taking off some of the stain from a sample board with methylated spirits and the stuff was nearly impervious to it. With some tests I have determined that spraying on shellac really does pull off the spirit stain I was intending to use, so it's back to the drawing board.

Now that the warm weather's back I'm looking again at solving this problem. Thanks for all your advice, I really appreciate it, and I hope to come out of this with a combination that works so I can share it!