Rolled Finish Technique

[Diane Kauffmds]

I don't know if this was ever covered in the forum, but I thought I'd share my technique for rolling lacquer into chips in finish.

On the bench is an Eastman Mandolin, which is finished in lacquer. It's starting to craze a bit and over the years, it's gone through the usual knocks. This has resulted in chips in the finish around the edges, which my cuatomer would like fixed.

These are deep chips in the finish. First, I used Butyl acetate to melt the existing lacquer into the Chips. If you do this, you should wear a mask. It has VOC's.

The chips are too deep for the Butyl acetate to fill, so I'm filling with shellac, using the roll method. To speed things along, I've taken about 1 tablespoon of a 2# cut of shellac, and added a few flakes. As they've softened, I used my heatgun to blow 160° air, directly into the shellac.

I know that most folks don't have this kind of heat control on.their heat guns. If you don't have temperature control, just use a hairdryer on around a medium setting. Stir it a bit. The alcohol evaporates a lot faster. When it gets to the consistency of cold honey, use small drops to drop, or "roll" into the chip.

Leave it to cure. It'll take a while. Depending on the depth of the chip, you'll have to do it more than once.

I'm using a dental tool called a composite scraper. It looks like tiny hockey stick.

When I'm done, I'll post pictures.