Thread: muggins

Can someone help I have been turning bowls , boxes etc. and doing what i was shown years ago, sanding to fine wiping with metho.applying up to 3 coats of shellac, sanding with 400 or oooo steelwool then useing shellawax friction polishing or shellawax glow. Can i get away with using shellac as listed then applying Traditional wax would this be ok as a finish on these items.

No idea where or who you got your original information from muggins but it's way more simple than that. Not only that but the information you were given was dead wrong. Plenty of wrong info out there. I did 20 years of demonstrating at wood shows and other events and the same people would often come back saying it doesn't work. Show them again and give them an Info Sheet and they still did it wrong because some know-all guru in a club said he did it this way or that way and it sort of worked.

The most basic application method:
Sand finely, (up to 1200 grit) apply Shellawax, work it into the wood under heat from friction and your done.

More complex method: Not as complex as described above Sand to1200 grit, higher if you have it but not really necessary. Apply EEE-Ultra Shine and work it until you see a mirror image of the rag and fingers in the face of the work. buff off any excess wax with clean piece of cloth. Stop lathe apply even coat of Shellawax or Glow, turn lathe on and using the same piece or cloth with the Shellawax or Glow moistened section, burn Shellawax or Glow into the surface of the work under friction and work it until any lines disappear on the work and a haze appears. This is the wax being drawn out of the polish with the lathe still running buff off this wax with a clean piece of cloth.

The above is fine for decorative pieces that will be looked at and not placed under constant chandelling or heavy work. The finish appears to be a surface coating but is basically in the wood as much as it is on it.

For functional pieces. IE anything that will be in contact with water, heat, alcohol, etc.
Apply a second coat of Shellawax or Glow straight over the first no sanding necessary unless you mucked the first coat up and then only fine sand maybe 800 or 1200 but only if needed. For more protection a third and subsequent application(s) may be applied for far greater protection.

• These extra coats are on the surface of the work rather than in it and will give you much higher resistance to marking to the point that you could almost hit the piece with a hammer and not damage the finish. Might dent the wood but the surface will stay in tact. Alcohol, water, heat, constant handling shouldn't hurt the surface.
• There is no need to "wipe with metho, apply any coats of shellac especially not 3 coats, sand with 400 or 0000 steelwool" before using Shellawax or Glow. What you are doing is not allowing the polish to bond and become one with the wood, so you are stopping it from working the way it was designed to. If you're going to use up to 3 coats of shellac you might just as well add a 4th coat and leave it at that.
  
  
• It is basically a waste of good shellac to put Shellawax or Glow over it, just as it is a waste of the Shellawax or Glow to be putting it on over the top of the shellac.
  
  
• Putting Traditional Wax or any other wax over the top of shellac is also a waste as the wax is way more easy to damage than the shellac.
  
  
• Also a waste of wax putting it over Shellawax or Glow as both of those are made with our special Hard Shellac that is way more durable than ordinary shellac and the wax as will be much easier to damage than either of those finishes.
  
  
• Putting wax on won't get you a better brighter finish if what it's going on wasn't really good to begin with.
  
  
• Sanding to 400 grit is way too course for a fine finish. Using 0000 steel wool is a no no as it will leave super fine bits of the metal in and on the surface of the finish. This in turn can leave you with small, black or brown spots in the work later on as it reacts with shellac and shellawax. etc. Steel wool is designed for use with metal or for at best for final use after a finish has fully dried and cured, to cut back any blemished due to application problems.
• Sanding up to 1200 grit gives you the perfect base to apply your EEE or Shellawax finish. Sanding from 400 to 1200 will require at worst the use of 400, 600, 800, and 1200, even better still go one more to 1500 if you have it and the difference will be absolutely astounding. Should only take a few minutes extra to do those 3 or 4 extra grits.
• Better still for bowls use a Rotary Sander it will give you a line free finish up to 10 times faster than hand sanding, used way less abrasive doesn't burn your fingers of the wood.
• You could also try our Aussie Oil on your boxes and smaller bowls. Works just like Shellawax but brings out even more highlights in the wood and is even a bit more fool proof to use
• Info sheets on all our products can be found >HERE<

Hope this is of some help to you muggins and to anyone else who's been given the wrong information and there are a lot who have.

Cheers - Neil

PS: I'm currently working on a new Shopping cart and hope to have a blog with short to the point instructional videos on using all our products on line within the next few months. At least that's the plan.