HOME IMPROVEMENT Restoring some furniture? Shellac is back

More than a million lac bugs are needed to make a pound of shellac.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Shellac could be making a comeback.
It was shoved aside more than 50 years ago in favor of more durable and synthetic wood finishes. But as more consumers are demanding natural products, they're remembering the amber stuff that's been used as a decorative wood coating since the 16th century.
Celebrity furniture restorers, such as Eli Rios of New York and Jeff Jewitt of Ohio, are singing shellac's praises these days, favoring it instead of the polyurethane that has coated pieces since the 1950s.
"To experienced finishers and restorers of fine furniture the world over, shellac remains the finish of choice," writes Jewitt in a trade article on antiquerestorers.com. " And most importantly, its low toxicity makes it a perfect choice for items that come into contact with food or children's toys."
What it is
Shellac is a natural resin secreted by tiny insects, called lac bugs, that attach themselves to certain trees in India and Thailand. About 1.5 million bugs must be harvested to make 1 pound of shellac, according to "Understanding Wood Finishing" by Bob Flexner.
The resin is scraped from twigs and branches, melted, strained, formed into thin sheets, broken up into flakes and shipped around the world.
Shellac available in various forms of three colors: blond, garnet and orange -- its natural and most widely sold shade. The colors vary from bleaching and dewaxing.
People might be surprised to learn that shellac doesn't just come in a liquid form in gallon and smaller aerosol can. It also is sold in dry flakes, which woodworkers prefer because it lasts longer than the liquid form. If shellac isn't fresh, it will stay gummy on wood and won't dry.
With flakes, you can mix it with denatured ethanol to vary the consistency. A 3-pound "cut" is the most common ratio -- 3 pounds of shellac for every gallon of alcohol.
One of shellac's former uses was a finish for bowling alleys, writes Jewitt. But the weight of a bowling ball dropping on a shellac surface would crack it.
Retro uses
Ed Waldman, an Overland Park furniture designer and maker, has played around with another one of shellac's retro uses. He took pieces of old 78 records (made of shellac), mixed them with alcohol and the end result was black shellac to coat wood.
Although it was a fun experiment, Waldman says he uses shellac only on occasion.
"The thing with shellac is that it's probably the most sensitive of finishes," Waldman says. "Alcohol and water can affect it easily."
So Waldman cautions people against using shellac on high traffic areas such as bars and tabletops. He typically uses shellac as an undercoat with varnish on top.
Peter Jilka, owner of a Kansas City, Kan., store that sells shellac, holds up two pictures of a table.
One shows a table with a flatter, dark finish.
The other photo of a table, which used shellac, has a patina with a golden undertone.
"It makes furniture look old style," says Jilka, owner of Merit Industries, an international supplier of furniture finishing products. "It adds a nice warm glow."