Started some shellac last night.  I bought it from flake and started with garnet.

It's pretty good and has great chatoyance, the chameleon effect that wood gets with the right finish.  

Only problem is I'd like it a little more red.  And I thought that was what I was getting with garnet.

Anyhoo, here's the picture of the start of my project.  

I've already stripped it and ordered a different grade of shellac to replace it.  

Looks great! A little darker orange would be nice, but it's pretty much right on. Is that Russian wood? Or an IWD stock? Post more pics when you refinish.

Have you tried the "Ruby" shellac from here

I've been wanting to try it on something just to see what effect it has.  I'm thinking tha combining the ruby and garnet in some ratio might be a decent color replication of Russian wood, but I haven't seen it in person.

Tell me about your application method.
I'm planning on doing a few pieces in shellac and it looks like you wound up with a nice even finish that I would like to achieve.

Also, which model AK is that?

I agree, it does look nice and I'd also like to hear more about his technique.

But, if you want to learn more about shellac, its uses and application techniques, you'll find a wealth of information at the site I linked to above.  There are instructions on disolving flake, brush selection, etc.  

I've been wanting to try their button shellac for its superior strength and durability.  It just doesn't have as wide of a selection of color choices as their flake shellac.

you might want to add some rit dye to some denatured alcohol,it dissolves better than in rubbing alcohol.Use 1/2 teaspoon of scarlet red and 1 teaspoon of sunburst/sunshine yellow to about a pint shellac/denatured alcohol,this gives you the reddish orange you will be looking for.you can adjust your color a little at a time by adding the rit mix to the shellac cut.test on some wood till you get what you want color wise.make the shellac at @4 LB cut to the pint.I use the hand method,a good palm full to 1 pint of D,alcohol.Let it sit overnight to dissolve.Strain your dye/alcohol through some cheese cloth to get the impurities out,this you don't need to sit overnight.Just experiment with the colors.You can really come up with some very nice colors for your wood.I think the color you have is just fine as it is.Many people try hard and fail to get that look you have,some succeed.JMHumbleO

I'll look into the RIT dye.  I tried to find it at Walmart before I started this but couldn't find it.  I'll go to Michael's  Crafts and Hobby Lobby next to try to secure some.  The colors you mentioned are good choices I think.

That might be interesting.  Looking at the ruby flakes it looks like it already has much of the garnet's character but just more red.

I'm going to try button lac to start with.

The kusmi #1 buttonlac is very "orange" in the raw so it might be exactly what I'm looking for.

BTW, for everyone's knowledge.

Supposedly dewaxed garnet like what I've used can start to melt at 149* F.   But the buttonlac will start to melt at 239* F.

I found that information on the site I'm buying my supplies from.  Which is shellac.net as imaposer has already suggested.  Great minds think alike.

I used a 1.5# cut.  The 1# cut is 1 oz shellac flake to 8 oz denatured alcohol, so I did about 1.5 oz in 8 oz of denatured alcohol.  I'm using basic denatured alcohol you can buy from Home Depot.

The application method I used was dead simple.  I think I read somewhere that someone used foam brushes.  This was really a test so I just used a foam brush.

I think the key to success was the 1.5# cut versus a 3# or 4# cut.  It goes on like water and takes many coats to build up.  But you can recoat every 20 minutes.  So within 2 hours you can have 6 coats on it.  But the multiple thin coats makes it easier to not screw up.

ETA:  It's a converted Saiga.  No dimples. But you could do this to any rifle obviously since the furn is interchangeable.

I also believe the thinner cuts allow the finish to penetrate the wood just a bit more.  I always like to at least use a couple of thin "seal coats" before adding the final finish coats, for this reason.

The Kusmi button shellac looks like it may be a good choice so I'm looking forward to seeing your results with it.  I'm hoping to try the Jethwa when it is available.

You can always use the Rit dye technique to tint the shellac and adjust the color if you desire.  Just be sure you filter your dye solution through a coffee filter, or similar, before adding to the shellac.  I've bought quite a bit of Rit powdered dye at Hobby Lobby and I'm pretty sure Michael's carries it too, as well as most fabric/sewing shops.  Wal-Mart usually only has the liquid version, which is NOT what you want.

Even with the lighter cuts I'd still wait a little longer between coats.  Even though it dies to the touch very quickly it hasn't quite reached its fully cured and hardened state that quickly.

Yeah the thinner coats did seem to penetrate the wood more.  I think that might be what helped with the chatoyance (chameleon effect).  It doesn't do much to the color of the wood but I think that it allows the shellac to build a finish which enhances the look of the grain versus laying on top of the wood.  

The Jethwa does seem to be the best choice in that it adds "red" into the equation but the orange-ness of the Kusmi #1 looks promising.  Moreso than the "brown"-ness of the Kusmi #2.  

I think mainly I got very lucky with the quick recoats because all of my stuff is really fresh.  The shellac just came in the mail (who knows how long shellac.net had it).  And I just mixed it with the solvent 48 hours prior to use.

Very helpful advice! I am all about multiple coats and being patient.

Now, you will probably be appalled, but for my first test work w/ shellac I plan on using the stuff in a can from Lowe's.

Will I be able to cut down this prepared version of shellac w/ denatured alcohol as well?

The  piece I am going to work on is a checkered birch pistol grip. How would you approach the checkering? My instinct tells me to put on the initial coat pretty heavy to get down into the grooves, and then brush it out of the checkering with an old toothbrush. Subsequent coats could be carefully applied to just the tops of the "diamonds."

What do you guys think? (Not meaning to hijack your thread - there just seems to be a lot of shellac knowledge here )

The Zinsser product has an extended product life because of a proprietary process they use.  However, I don't believe their cans have "born on" dates.  Thus you could get a can that is somewhat old and age will make a difference in the quality of the shellac.  The problems with old shellac is that it won't dry. You can definitely thin it down with denatured alcohol.  The Zinsser comes as a 3# cut.  So if you take 4 oz out of the can and add 4 oz of denatured alcohol, you've just created 1.5# cut which is reasonably thin and easy to work with.

Yes, you can cut the Zinnser shellac with DA.

When working with shellac one of the keys is to never go back over an area twice.  Shellac begins drying almost immediately so brush on in one direction only, not back and forth like you might with paint.  

With this in mind I wouldn't recommend that you try to use a toothbrush, as you suggested, to remove the shellac from the grooves.  Instead I'd suggest that you apply a couple of coats of thinned shellac directly to the grooves with a small artist type brush and let dry.  Then do as you suggested and come back over the grip with subsequent coats applied only to the tops.  Just be careful to not load your brush too heavy or you'll end up with runs down in the grooves.

One stain technique mentioned in this forum is 4 parts Iodine to 8 parts Amber Shellac to get the Russian Orange to Red color.
This eliminates the straining RIT needs and eliminates all the salt that's in RIT.

My buddy is a high end wood worker and he's telling me that shellac is not water resistant.  He says if it gets wet it turns white.
He says to top coat with something like the water based acrylic Minwax in a satin gloss.  This seals the shellac and water proofs it and takes off the hard gloss of shellac.

I'm going to have to disagree with your friend.  Shellac is water resistant, even the de-waxed variety is still fairly water resistant, but the standard non-de-waxed variety is better in this regard.  It wouldn't be a good choice for a kitchen counter top or dining table but for general use items and rifle furniture it's GTG.  The turning white that he is referring to is most likely in reference to the rings left by drinking glasses on a table with a shellac finished top.  But this can also happen with other finishes such as polyurethane.

There have been quite a few military rifles that have used shellac as a finish over the years.  I'd say that most all of them have been wet once or twice but I've yet to ever see a white one.

But, in fact neither BLO, nor Tung oil are very good at water resistance and they were used as finishes on US military rifles up until the times of the "plastic rifles".  When using either of these finishes today it is recommended to top the finish with an application of "gunny paste".  This is a wax based product sold under various names but I make my own using equal parts, pure bees wax, turpentine, and BLO.  I couple of coats of this concoction increases the finish's water resistance without adding too much gloss.  

I hear that some shellac finishes are not good at water resistance.  That came from Bob Flexner I believe.  And dewaxed is supposed to be better for water reistance than waxy (but I believe that counts for well processed shellacs and not the buttonlac) Bob Flexner again.  For a table top, I wouldn't use shellac.  I'd use General Tried and True or Behlen's Rock Hard.  But now that I've used garnet shellac I am very tempted to use it for a book shelf.  Tung oil is supposedly very water resistant and was often used in boating applications.  This is from wiki on tung: When applied, it provides a tough, highly water-resistant finish which does not darken noticeably with age as does linseed oil. I've often wondered if the Russians didn't use a true shellac but something closer to a spirit varnish like violin varnish which incorporates turpentine of venice, sandarac, or mastic.  It would have been around in time for the Mosin Nagant.

I guess it depends on your definition of water resistance.  I wouldn't choose it for a marine environment, but as a stock finish it is better at sealing out moisture than BLO when used alone.

I agree that Tung oil is better than BLO in humid environments.  That's why the US military made the switch to Tung in 1942.  It provides better rot resistance when subjected to high humidity environments, and maybe water proof would have been a better term since neither of them are actually a barrier to water when applied to a rifle stock in the traditional manner.  The non-darkening advantage is true but strictly cosmetic, IMO.  There is no doubt that overall Tung oil is superior to BLO.  I have no knowledge of its use in the boating world.

Just for those that may not know better, I'm speaking of real Tung oil, made from the nut of the Tung tree and not that Formsby "Tung Oil Finish" stuff.  Formsby TOF is ok as a furniture finish but it isn't the same as true Tung oil and is more like a thin varnish.

As far as I know waxy shellac actually has superior moisture resistance to the de-waxed variety.  Again, as far as I know, the main advatange to the de-waxed shellacs is if you are using it as a seal coat or primer for the application of a non-shellac top coat.  Which brings up another excellent use of shellac, it is very good at sealing knots and such when painting pine.  Use a seal coat of de-waxed shellac before painting and the knots won't bleed through later.  It's probably the best product I've found for use as a sealing primer.

In any event I use my "gunny paste" as a finishing touch on most all of my rifles with traditional finishes.

Looks cool bro!!!!