Stripping original shellac, then what?

We are very lucky that almost all the woodwork in our Ditmas Park home, which we’ve lived in for 14 years now, has the original shellac finish. We are clearing out the parlor, living room and dining room, covering the floors with 6 mil plastic & then resin paper. One room at a time we are using denatured alcohol, rags and dental tools to bring all wood back to its original state. In truth you never get ALL the shellac off, but it is no longer deep black and alligatored. We found lovely red oak underneath. HERE IS THE QUESTIONS: Once we finish, which could very well be a year from now since there is SO much wood, do we leave it alone, apply shellac, antique oil finish, paint it white? The thing is, we will be selling this house in about 5 years, so the choice we make needs to be geared to that, not our personal preference. In addition, we are not sure if we should pay $2,800 per window to have the 10 windows in these three rooms restored or replace them thr ough the landmark process. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated. [IMG_8768](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s1/:brownstoner:qs5f:img_8768.jpg.jpg) [IMG_8774](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s1/:brownstoner:Ypi2:img_8774.jpg.jpg) [IMG_9090](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s1/:brownstoner:H23V:img_9090.jpg.jpg)

tag482

in Renovation 4 years and 8 months ago

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stevecym | 4 years and 8 months ago

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so since your desire is to go back to the clean looking shellac and you are getting that, i would not follow my suggestion to wax over it but reshellac as you are thinking. that way, when you sell, (and the buyer will be someone who likes wood) the new owner can either strip that down a bit, seal it with unwaxed shellac and paint or leave it. the wood will be a selling point.

tag482 | 4 years and 8 months ago

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Thank you for all the feedback and suggestions. Perhaps I used the wrong word with “stripping” we are actually wiping away the thick black layer after spraying denatured alcohol on the wood surfaces. With the egg and dart details we are spraying on the denatured alcohol, wiping away the top layer and then plucking out the gunk in the detailed grooves with dental tools, gently. It still has enough shellac in the wood that we don’t see the need to go further and sand. The wood grain is not lifted, it’s very smooth. It’s definitely not raw wood. No chipmunks, lol. I think applying a new layer of shellac makes sense. Same on same. You are all SO helpful! Thank you.

stevecym | 4 years and 8 months ago

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i looked at the photos. the very dark stuff. try xylene on it. it may lift that without damaging the shellac below. i think you have multiple things on there. this is what happen, in the 1920’s they moved to very dark woods in the houses. and they went over the shellac with something. i am not sure what – though there were all of these varnishes (ben moore had something when i was a kid called “magnalac”) and they are not like the varnishes we have today – they were dyed dark (you can dye shellac). i went over something like this with xylene and it came right off. the xylene will not interfere with the shellac.

i tend not to use chemicals like xylene around women and children.

stevecym | 4 years and 8 months ago

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i put a lot of denatured on shellac one time and just kept “washing” it down. it was not necessary to strip it. and there is no point in stripping it unless you will sand it all off as you cannot out anything over it-

if you come back on and tell me what your experience is as you strip it i may have an idea what is going on.

shellac (and maybe wax) are the most “forgiving” finishes.

stevecym | 4 years and 8 months ago

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right. work it with alchohol and steel wool. you will reactivate it and take off the excess. the alligatoring may not be shellac at all but wax that was put over the shellac or a varnish that was put over the wax that was put over the shellac. alligatoring can occur when a hard finish is put over a soft finish and the climate changes and things move and there you have it.

last fall i was working on a door in Bronxville and the customer had the original shellac in the place. he was wondering what to do with it. i went out and got some steel wool and alcohol and more shellac. i removed the top layer and then put a coat on and when he saw the results, he wanted to pay me to do the entire house. (i was trying to teach him how to do it).

this is what i would do. find out if there is wax on there and see if you can remove that with mineral spirits and then when it is gone the finish dry, i would see if a little alcohol would freshen the shellac. Perhaps you are correct to keep taking it down as as you do it, 100 years of smoke and soot and what ever else ke eps getting embedded in it. when you get it “all” off, and you say you will not get it “all” off and you are correct – any stripping job is followed by a sanding job – i would reshellac it. I am sorry, with all due respect to bob’s seniority, any oil finish over waxed shellac is a no-no. dewaxed shellac can be varnished over as dewaxed shellac is a sanding sealer. but let’s assume yours is waxed – that is what gives it the gloss. so if you do not wish to apply more shellac, you can wax it. use any of the automotive waxes or butchers. and you can melt these waxes and tint them. or you can buy them tinted and build them.

i would not try to stain the wood either. unless you sand, the grain will be closed.

this all comes from a purist.

RobertGMarvin

in Renovation 4 years and 8 months ago

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If you’re a purist shellac is r hug e way to go. I’m not v and have had what O think are excellent results with Minwax Antique Oil Finish on Oak. The stuff is out of fashion now but some hardware stores [i. e. Leopoldi’s and Tarzian, in Park Slope] still sell it, as does Amazon. You may want to stain the wood first, but AOF nicely darkens oak c and brings out the grain.

Guest User | 4 years and 8 months ago

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Hopefully an expert will weigh in, but by amateur opinion would be to do an antique oil finish or subtle stain (or maybe a shellac– I’m not too up on the technical difference here). Since it’s nice old oak, it would be a shame to paint over it; but new owners could choose to do that far more easily than stripping any new paint yourself to get back to the wood. I personally don’t like the “we stripped it and left it entirely natural” look that seems to be trendy in some recent respectful restorations, since that’s not what finished wood trim is supposed to look like. You want SOME sort of finish on it, or else you might as well move into a lumberyard or try to sell your home to a family of squirrels. I’d say the only thing you wouldn’t want to do with respect to resale value would be to go with a dark stain, since that’s what seems to turn most people off of seeing unpainted wood.