I follow more or less the same procedure, i.e. – after a few coats of shellac I leave it to fully cure overnight. Before I apply more coats I either sand it with some 320 grit sandpaper or a brown (~360 grit) synthetic abrasive pad.

After repeating this process a few times, depending on the result I want to achieve, either a more natural fell or a more glossy perfect finish I’ll rub the surface with a gray pad (around 1500 grit) to cut the sheen down and remove the plastic feel of the shellac.

At this point the surface looses the shine but is silky smooth. you can throw a piece of cotton sheet at the surface and it will glide over the surface. From this point I’ll apply a very thin coat of furniture wax and buff it to bring the shine to where I want. Either a glossy finish or a satin finish. I usually favor a satin look.

I have some 0000 steel wool that I’d like to use instead of the synthetic pad but I haven’t got a chance to try it. I’d like to try two things: 1. use the steel wood to rub down the shellac before the wax and apply wax with a cotton sheet (I usually apply wax with a cotton sheet, the same material I use to wrap the cheese cloth to make the shellac rubber); 2. use the fine steel wool to apply the wax and then rub the wax wit a cotton sheet.

The later may result in a different look and feel to the finish.

How are you applying the wax?

Take care,
Luis

Keep it up!

thanks for the comment…funny thing with the rubber; I decided to try it out after Luis’ comment from my last post about speed of application. He was right- it was faster and I didn’t have to worry about brush marks.
go figure eh?

I have been thinking of using shellac and this has convinced me to go the all natural approach – almost alchemy . Curious why did you use a rubber instead of brushing with a suitable brush?

Really enjoy your blog

Ross