This is a post in a series of 31 Days of Wood Finishing. See the intro post with all the topics here.
Yesterday I did a post on Shellac. I wanted to mention some of the common problems you may come across when you apply Shellac, and the solutions.
Blushing
Blushing is when part or all of the surface appears cloudy, or off- white in color. This is caused by too much moisture in the air, or some water could have gotten into the shellac.
Sometimes if you let the project cure for an hour or so the blushing will disappear. This happened when I sprayed shellac for the first time. I waited a half an hour, and the blushing disappeared. If it does not go away you can lightly wipe it with some denatured alcohol on a rag. Another way to remove blushing is to rub the surface with fine abrasives. I recommend wet sanding so you can see what you are doing, and don’t sand through to the bare wood. You are only trying to cut through the blush.
Dust or trash in the Finish
The air in the shop, your brush, or your work surface could be dusty. I call this trash in the finish.
This is easily removed by lightly sanding the affected area, cleaning the area, and reapplying the finish.
Ridges or Orange Peel
Ridges occur when too thick of a coat is applied with a brush. Looks like a thick line in the finish. Orange Peel occurs when too thick of a coat of shellac is sprayed. It actually looks like the texture on an orange peel.
The way to fix this is to sand the marks out, and add more denatured alcohol to the shellac to thin it. Then apply thinner coats.
Zeke Willard