Waxed or dewaxed shellac

[Chip Tait – Brooklyn Fretworks]

I’m with you. Dewaxed for the win.

I know that some folks like to make their own from button lac, but in each case, dewaxing is part of the process.

I learned French Polishing in furniture school many years ago, and we always made ours with dewaxed blond flakes.

[Jorge Rodríguez Spiral Sun Guitars]

Some people claim that they use button lac WITHOUT dewaxing, they say it makes a harder finish. I don’t know who’s wrong or right, it’s just one of those neverending arguments… but other people swear that waxed shellac makes softer finishes. Anyway… 🙂

[Martin Maudal]

A couple things… the process of making Indian button lac uses a good deal of heat, and so polymerizes the shellac. It is technically not dewaxed, but it’s not waxy. And it does in fact make for a very hard and beautiful finish. tip – you can also add a drop of walnut oil, which also polymerizes [dries completely] and adds flexibility and a super nice gloss to a French polish.

Now, the only disadvantage I can think of is that it doesn’t have the same fantastic adhesion qualities that dewaxed shellac has. So I use *that* as a washcoat say between an epoxy sealer and a lacquer clear coat.

[James Huntley]

I’m going to say a third option, Buttonlac. It has natural wax that aids in padding and also results in a stronger finish.

When using buttonlac, I crush the button and put them in a tea-bag made from 3 layers of cotton. After letting the tea bag sit in ethanol for a week, I filter the shellac into a new bottle and discard the tea-bag. The result is 95% of the wax is filtered out but the remaining wax aids in padding.

One note, I use dewaxed shellac for the seal coat before using buttonlac.