Practical House, Wagon and Automobile Painter / including sign painting, and valuable hints and recipes

by W. F. White

TO MAKE BLEACHED OR WHITE SHELLAC VARNISH.

Take powdered white shellac 1½ pounds, best grain alcohol 1 gallon. Add the gum to the alcohol, set it in a warm place and shake your jug or bottle occasionally. Don’t put it in tin or iron; either of them will discolor it. You can hasten the process by setting your jug in a sand or water bath, and gently heating it; or set it by the stove, or in the sunshine.

To make the common orange shellac of commerce, dissolve 1½ pounds orange shellac in 1 gallon methylated spirit or grain alcohol. This will dry in ten or fifteen minutes, and makes a hard lustrous varnish when dry, and stands the weather better than most gum varnishes. It makes a turbid liquid of orange brown hue and dries rather a pale brown. For use on dark wood this is equal to the white shellac, if not superior.