Zinsser is a 3 lb. This high concentration enables the denatured alcohol to dissolve the shellac flakes quickly and effectively. Denatured Alcohol is apparently no longer legal in CA (thanks, assholes) and the only online vendors that'll ship here are charging $20 for a $7 pint, which I refuse to pay. You can remove shellac with a variety of solvents, including denatured alcohol. My question is inspired from a recent article from Lost art press on mixing shellac. This traditional finish comes from natural resins secreted by the lac bug. The solvent used is denatured alcohol. Removing Shellac With Solvents. What are some tested, good alternatives for dissolving shellac? These secretions are collected and processed into flakes that dissolve in ethyl or denatured alcohol. You want to use Zinsser SealCoat, which is a de-waxed shellac. Along with many other brands it was once widely available. Chris Schwarz in short uses Everclear to dissolve the shellac flakes as opposed to denatured alcohol for reason being that everclear dissolves the flakes completely while the latter doesn't. While this method is messy to clean up, it is the least labor-intensive. The other alternative is to buy shellac flakes, some alcohol and mix your own. It seems that every time someone asks about shellac, we get a series of opinions about what it should be disolved in. Any “Denatured” alcohol product is poisonous, no matter if it started out as grain alcohol (the drinking kind) or wood alcohol or any other kind. https://www.popularwoodworking.com/.../methylated-spirits-best-solvent-shellac It's already been thinned to a 2 lb. Best solvent for shellac is and always has been ethanol alcohol, not methanol alcohol. I know for a fact that the shellac that Sheaffer used was Zinsser. cut (3 lbs of shellac flakes to a gallon of alcohol). Can anyone guide me to what else will work. As I noted before, the gallon can in the fountain pen repair station in the service center was a … cut so you don't need to add alcohol unless you plan to use it for french polishing. I need to thin some shellac and here in Canada we cannot buy Denatured Alcohol (or at least I cannot find any) I can get Shellac thinner from Lee Valley at $14.50 per litre but I was hoping for something a little less expensive. The word, denatured says it all, something was done to a natural product to change it’s natural characteristics. Denatured alcohol is used because it is extremely high proof. The alcohol will eventually soften the finish until it becomes sticky. You can also buy shellac premixed, it's slightly cheaper than polyurethane. Basically, any alcohol will do, but the preferred alcohol is ethanol (the same stuff sold in liquor stores), which, unless you you want to pay exhorbitant prices (tax), is commonly sold for finishing purposes as "denatured alcohol". 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