But by far the most beautiful surface treatment in this kind are the lacquers, composed of spirit and various gums, or of shellac and spirit into which colour is introduced.
This was the earliest and the best method, but in later times a polish composed of naphtha and shellac was used.
The studs of hall, dining room, and parlor are exposed, and together with underboarding and beams overhead are planed and sand‐papered, and all woodwork is given two coats of shellac of light finish.
The studs and beams overhead in dining room, parlor, and hall to have two coats of shellac (or Wheeler’s hard finish).
Is there anything to prevent shellac used for patterns from getting dark before using after it is mixed some time?
In Madras a mortar is used with which either sugar, butter or buttermilk, shellac and eggs are mixed.
When dry, it is ready for shellacor varnish as may be desired.
Shellac forms the principal ingredient for polishes and spirit varnishes.
Sometimes a little dissolved shellac is used to produce "shortness.
Second, a coating of shellac is next applied with a brush or a soft piece of Turkey sponge.
For shellac dead finish apply two coats of yellow shellac.
The darker grades of shellac are the cheaper, and will answer for the bulk of the work, but the clearest only for the panels.
In that view the palest shellac should be used on the panels, and darker pieces, liver coloured, etc.
Boil in the mixture of shellac and oil until all are dissolved; this will require about four hours.
These brushes when not in use should be taken from the various pots and deposited in an earthen pot sufficiently large to hold all the shellac brushes used in the shop.
On common finish, too, the oil will wear better than shellac in stock or on storage, so far as preserving its freshness is concerned.
At the present time shellac is bleached by filtration over animal charcoal.
Put in enough of raw linseed-oil and thin shellac to cover the bristles of the brushes.
If a varnish-finish is desired, apply a flowing coat of light amber varnish or shellac thus rubbed.
Shellac is produced in the largest quantity and the best quality in Bengal, Assam, and Burmah.
The heat of the sun is often sufficient to bring the shellac to a sticky state.
It would probably answer as well to shellac the under side of the paper, and to use but one sheet, but I have not tried this plan.
The white shellac is orange shellac that has been bleached.
If a more durable finish is desired a coat of good clear varnish over the shellac will serve the purpose.
On cheaper toys a coat of shellac only may be used as a covering for the color stain.
In this way at least one coat of varnish is eliminated and a great deal of time saved because the shellac dries within a few minutes.
To preserve and protect the water color on the toy a coat of white shellac may be applied.
If orange shellac is used it will be found that it effects the color of the stain used.
White shellac also produces a slight change in color and for this reason many working with toys will use a good clear varnish instead.
It should be made moderately thick, and if intended for light-colored work, white shellac should be used, as the dark leaves a slight stain upon the surface.
Give the whole a good varnishing with the shellac dissolved in alcohol, and allow plenty of time to elapse before the toy is used, for it to become perfectly dry and hard.
Shellac dissolved in alcohol makes the best varnish for this kind of work.
Illustration] The top of the post should be hollowed slightly, to retain the ball; and the appearance of the whole will be improved by a coat of shellac or paint.
If the shellac be thick, it may of itself stain the mast to a sufficient extent, but in that case—if thick—it should not be used on the white hull.
After the keel, deck, and bowsprit are in place, it would be well to give her another good coat of paint, and when that is perfectly dry, to varnish her thoroughly with the shellac spoken of before in this book.
A prudent application of shellac and putty before painting will make everything right.
Heat them in a sand bath, or applyshellac or copal varnish, to which a little Prussian blue has been added.
Wire may be insulated by giving it a coat of shellac varnish and allowing it to become dry and nearly hard before winding.
An injury to a paper boat is easily repaired by a patch of strong paper and a coating of shellac put on with a hot iron.
To apply shellac with a heated iron to the wounds made by the oyster-shells was the work of a few minutes, and my craft was as sound as ever.
A beautiful gloss may be given to this or any other black ink by adding a strong solution of shellac and borax.
When thoroughly baked the matrix should be well brushed with a thin solution of shellacto impart a smooth surface, and at the same time greater strength.
Dissolve the shellac in the alcohol and add the linseed oil and turpentine; then add the hydrochloric acid and butter of antimony, which has been previously mixed, and thoroughly mix all together.
In the Museum at Wiesbaden thin specimens are impregnated with a solution of white of egg, brittle objects with dilute fish glue, while for hard objects a solution of shellac or melted shellac is used.
The following solutions, amongst others, may be recommended as suitable for impregnation: (1) Shellac dissolved in alcohol.
To prevent the formation of mould a small quantity of dissolved corrosive sublimate[163] is added to the glue, or when dry after impregnation the objects may be covered with a solution of shellac or resin.
A final thin coating of varnish or shellac is then given.
Herr Straberger states that his treatment has been successful when impregnation with isinglass and coating with shellac has failed.
That is how shellac may be coloured as sealing-wax, but it is a totally different method from that by which wool is dyed.
In short, it is impossible to mordant and to dye shellac by any process that will dye wool.
Shellac is obtained from the resinous incrustation produced on the bark of the twigs and branches of various tropical trees by the puncture of the female "lac insect" (Taccardia lacca).
A solution of shellac in wood spirit is indeed used for the spirit-proofing of silk hats, and to some extent of felt hats, and on the whole the best work, I believe, is done with it.
The resin tribe, of which shellac is a member, comprises vegetable products of a certain degree of similarity.
Ordinary shellac almost invariably contains some rosin, but good button-lac is free from this substance.
Next morning a square of card was fixed withshellac to it, and after 9 h.
A narrow chip of a quill was fixed with shellac to the apex of a radicle.
A rather long and narrow splinter of extremely thin glass, fixed with shellac to apex, it caused in 9 h.
A radicle of considerable length had a small square of card fixed with shellac to its apex laterally: after only 7 h.
It is remarkable that these latter cases occurred more frequently when objects were attached with thick gum-water, which never became dry, than when shellac was employed.
A very small square of card fixed with shellac to apex of young radicle: after 9 h.
A rather large oblong piece of card fixed with shellac to apex: after 24 h.
We have also seen in the numbered experiments that narrow splinters of quill and of very thin glass, affixed with shellac, caused only a slight degree of deflection, and this may perhaps have been due to the shellac itself.
From these cases we may infer that the pressure from a bit of card affixed with shellac to one side above the apex, is hardly a sufficient irritant; but that it occasionally causes the radicle to bend like a tendril towards this side.
Little squares of card were attached with shellac to one side of the tips of 19 radicles, some of which were subjected to 78o F.
Ten of these secondary radicles, which were directed obliquely downwards, were experimented on with very small squares of card attached with shellac to the lower sides of their tips.
Squares of the card-like paper were fixed withshellac to the tips of 15 radicles, and ten of these became conspicuously bowed from the perpendicular and from the squares; two slightly, and three not at all.
With the addition of alcohol enough to make it smell strong, it passes for white shellac among some cheap painters, and is used for first coats or stain work.
For interior work I am in favor of using shellac over grained work in preference to varnish, and I have shellac applied to the doors of my rooms, the casings, etc.
Shellac finish is less glaring than varnish, and has the advantage of drying quickly; so that it escapes the dust which is invariably present in new buildings.
It can be rubbed down, if necessary, in the same manner as hardwood, and where graining is done to match wood finished in shellac it makes the work look uniform.
If the books are labeled before shellacking, the ink must be allowed to dry thoroughly or it may run; in removing the labels, use wood alcohol first to cut the shellac and then soak off with blotting paper and water.
To shellac, hold the book by the printed matter and apply the shellac, which may be diluted with a little wood alcohol, taking care to shellac the edges well.
Having filled the first one, remove the shellac and fill the other in the same way.
If the proof is required cheaper, more shellac and rosin may be introduced.
American manufacturers finding that shellac possesses every requisite for both stiffening and water-proofing, now for their best hats use that gum only dissolved in alcohol.
A second side-crown and another tip are now applied, covering the others, and the whole of these cemented together with the hot iron, the shellac with which they were stiffened acting as a cement.
The most simple and the best stiffening for any hat is shellacdissolved in alcohol, and thinned down to a proper consistence.
A supply of the best white shellac may be obtained from the local paint dealer.
If the line of shellacis uneven the book has an unsightly appearance.
If desired, the book may be given a coat of white shellac and one of varnish, after which it should be wiped with a paraffine cloth.
When lettering is dry, apply shellac as described under Labeling.
It is a process which takes some time since two coats ofshellac must be applied, and it does not increase the wear of the cloth to any great extent.
Use labels made of extra heavy paper, so that they will not turn dark when shellac is applied later.
Other paints may be ground in shellac varnish; or in linseed oil, but this will not dry so quick.
In either case, the work must afterwards have one or more coats of copal or shellac varnish.
Take of gum-shellac and rosin each two ounces; and of gum-mastic one ounce; reduce them to powder and mix and melt them together over a gentle fire.
Then take out the paper (the only use of which is to give the glue more surface for the action of the alcohol) and add one ounce of gum-shellac in powder; continue the heat, often shaking the mixture till the shellac is dissolved.
The wood should be well primed with raw linseed oil and white lead after the covering over with shellac varnish of all resinous and sappy parts in order to stop their coming through the paint coats.
Combined with shellac and turpentine, it forms a good sealing-wax.
If shellac be compounded into sealing-wax, immediately after it has been separated by fusion from the palest qualities of stick or seed lac, it then forms a better and less brittle article, than when the shellac is fused a second time.
Shellac can be restored in some degree, however, to a plastic and tenacious state by melting it with a very small portion of turpentine.
The palest shellac is to be selected for bright-coloured sealing-wax, the dark kind being reserved for black.
One of the best for this purpose is shellac in alcohol, colored to suit with Vandyke or Spanish brown, etc.
Shellac is commonly used, but copal gives good results, also Brunswick black in oil.
Great care must be exercised that not too much shellac is used, or the paper will be rendered transparent.
Next apply a coat of white shellac (reduced by one part of alcohol to three parts of shellac), brushing it on quickly with the grain of the wood.
After the last coat of shellac is dry apply one coat of spar varnish.
In sanding over a first coat of shellac or paint a block is not used, but the sandpaper is folded two or three times and used under the finger tips.
After theshellac has dried eight or ten hours it should be rubbed lightly with No.
The final finish may be several coats of shellacor two coats of a bright lively color of paint.
After being sanded, the surface of the board should be given a coat of shellac and after drying should be rubbed down with No.
Paint may be used instead of shellac as a finish, in which case the numbers should be put on with paint of a contrasting color to show up well.
If a shellac finish is used, the numbers should be lettered in with water-proof India ink, after the first coat of shellac is dry, and the second coat should be applied over this.
