Colouring shellac

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Dauph

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Hi all,
Have any of you tried adding colour to shellac? If so, what did you use and how did it come out?
I'd like to have a go with something along the lines of primary red or blue to start with.
Be nice to have a bit of an idea what results are like before spending money.
Apparently you can use alcohol based dye, or mica powder.

Cheers
 
I've found Fiebing's leather dye to be really good. You only need a few drops, and it seems to be pretty colour fast (even for the brighter colours). Mostly I've used the browns for darkening the handles on newer (i.e. non-rosewood) hand planes.
 
I've found Fiebing's leather dye to be really good. You only need a few drops, and it seems to be pretty colour fast (even for the brighter colours). Mostly I've used the browns for darkening the handles on newer (i.e. non-rosewood) hand planes.
Looks good, I'll give it a go. Thank you
 
Plus 1 for Mixol, haven’t tried it in French Polish but it’s a doddle to add to water based poly varnish, I mixed two dyes once to get a really wicked turquoise, wonderful, but impossible to photograph for some reason.
Ian
 
Don’t know if this is the right place
I have just started making my first batch of shellac.... will let you all know how it goes
8 20 pm just went and looked at my batch of shellac...... it’s like my custard. Lumpy
 
Last edited:
Don’t know if this is the right place
I have just started making my first batch of shellac.... will let you all know how it goes
8 20 pm just went and looked at my batch of shellac...... it’s like my custard. Lumpy
What's the ratio of flakes to alcohol? It does usually take a day or two to fully "melt".
 
Don’t know if this is the right place
I have just started making my first batch of shellac.... will let you all know how it goes
8 20 pm just went and looked at my batch of shellac...... it’s like my custard. Lumpy
It does take a while to fully dissolve. I stir mine periodically which I think helps. I do like shellac and find it very easy to use. I have a jar each of 1lb, 2lb and 3lb cut. It definitely takes longer to dissolve the higher the ratio of flakes to spirit is
 
Another here for powder pigments. You can add the dyes to a little alcohol to dissolve first then add it to the mix with a dropper or pipette. This helps control how light or dark you want the finish to be. Some powders can be tricky to gauge. The leather dyes are also a good idea as suggested and maybe as controllable as the pre-mixed powder and alcohol.
 

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