On 30 Sep 2003 20:41:11 -0700, (Bob) wrote:

After fuming (24 hours; 28-31% ammonium hydroxide; 70 degrees), I will
apply 3 coats of boiled linseed oil (drying between) and then a few
topcoats of natural shellac, using 0000 steel wool between shellac
coats.

I use something very similar to this. I find it's attractive and a
less formal finish than full-blown french polishing. Much of my
current work is "1900 American Bungalow" in style

I don't use linseed, but a commercial mix (LIberon's) based on tung
instead. I find that linseed is colour unstable over time and prone
to extreme yellowing in a year or so. I also find the drying to be
quicker and more predictable with a tung base rather than linseed,
particularly in high humidity.

I do use linseed on some pieces, but only raw linseed as a base for my
own true boiled recipes, cooking it with either lead or manganese
oxides, according to Bill Mendes' notes on the subject 18thC
Pennsylvania gunstocking.

I don't rub the shellac out, as I do for french polishing. If I did,
I've switched to plastic mesh abrasives (3M or Webrax) to avoid
rust-spot or iron stain problems from fragments of steel wool left
behind.

The oak I use is English (Q. robur) rather than American white (Q.
alba). It's not so pale and the surface may be rather more porous.
If your finishing is plain shellac over oil, these pores will still be
visible in the finished surface. This doesn't bother me, but you may
wish to use a pore filler before the oil.


Is there any benefit to waxing over shellac

I've done this, if I think the piece is going to be wax polished in
use. But it's also less easy to re-finish a damaged shellac finish if
it's waxy, so there are issues either way. In general I don't.


--
Smert' spamionam