I am using Royal Lac shellac for my classical and loving it.

[johnnparchem]

I have been finishing my contemporary classical guitar with Royal Lac shellac from Shellac Finishes. I am really happy with how it is going on. Here is a description I found on line Royal-Lac is a proprietary formulation formed by cross-linking shellac with carefully selected synthetic resins to form new polyester chains that combine the look and feel of shellac with the durability of synthetic finishes.. Also it can be buffed to a high shine. It comes as a 2 lb cut I have been using it as a 1 lb cut. It really builds nicely and stays level. My method is sort of half FP half padding. I use a proper muneca or fad so I can control how much I am applying but I am using almost all with the grain strokes and no oil. At some point I will level sand and buff it out.

This is after two days, no sanding.

[Stray Feathers]

Looks great so far. I am interested in this as a newbie, being sort of gun-shy about spraying lacquer, but not crazy about French Polish either. Keep us posted.

[Randy]

Hi Jhon what can you say about royal lac now after some time?
Thinking about trying it. I typically use Button lac. French polished..
Do ou get a nice build and buff out? How about clarity ?
Thank You
Randy

[johnnparchem]

The guitar has held up so far. I am still a believer in the product. I have done 4 instruments and have been happy with all of them. It it builds quickly and buffs out well. I purchased more recently. I did read else where of people having trouble spraying a high solid level product. But I have seen nothing but good reports from those who have padded it or French Polished it on.

[RnB]

The guitar has held up so far. I am still a believer in the product. It it builds quickly and buffs out well.

From what I can see from the pix, your guitar looks fine John...

Does Royal Lac buff out to hi-gloss (like nitro) or is the finish more liken to a hand-rubbed soft gloss. Either way is OK by me & sometimes I like a soft-gloss looking finish. Working w/ lacquer is getting harder to deal with here in CA w/ all the restrictions & my own health perspective. Naphtha is nearly a thing of the past. Thinking about finish alternatives, but also trying not to get back into the spray rig ordeal.

My previous finishes are pretty low-tech using Deft Rattle cans, a carousel & hand rubbing for days to get a decent finish. But lately, I'm finding Deft's cure time is problematic. In that, it seems to take forever to cure so it's real hard. Even after waiting for a lengthy time (months), when I case the guitar or lay it down on somewhere (even on soft cotton fabric), it comes out like the lacquers' getting chewed-up or eaten away. Not major, but enough for me to have to sand & polish it out again. Wasn't like this before. I'm thinking that maybe Deft has moved the formula around to make it sell-able...dunno?

[johnnparchem]

Royal Lac buffs out to hi-gloss, it has a look closer to a polished shellac French Polish than nitro. It also could be left without buffing looking like a hand finished French Polish. A shinny surface with some padding marks. I also think a good look. It can be apply with a combinations of padding and sanding. A very forgiving application technique.

There was just a discussion about deft that showed up in a sets of posts: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7506

[RnB]

Deft is a weird product. I recommend staying completely away from it. It crazes, never hardens, reacts badly with some case linings, and imprints if the instrument is left leaning against, or laying on a variety of materials. .

Thx for the link & info John...! That's exactly what I've been seeing w/ my Deft finishes. Sheds a whole new light on what material I might using in the future...

[Dexter]

After reading about Royal Lac on this and other forums, I decided to try it on a rosewood OM. At the same time, I thought I'd try using Z-poxy Finishing Resin as a pore filler for the first time. I did some sample pieces first to work on my technique, and I'm glad I did. It took me 5 coats to get the pore fill right, but it looked really great once I got there. Then I applied the Royal Lac pretty much as shown on the Shellac Finishes web site. I used a combination of padding, sanding, and finally padding on many coats of a thinner cut with the grain. The result was impressive once I got the technique down. Except for a few very minor padding marks, there didn't appear to be any need for buffing.

I let the samples cure for two and a half weeks. First, the good news. The minor padding marks had disappeared and the finish resisted fingernail scrapes much better than regular shellac and just about as well as on a nitro lacquer sample. However, it had developed a large number of very small pores that had shrunk back. Not by much, but enough to be visible on the high gloss surface. I don't think it was because of any problem with the Royal Lac, because if it shrank a bit while curing on a perfectly flat surface, it would still be flat. So I think the Z-poxy shrank a bit in the pores. I thought I had given it plenty of time to cure, using a warming box at 98F for a minimum of 8 hours before sanding flat between coats.

So that raises the question: How long should Z-poxy be left to cure before sanding flat to be absolutely sure it will not shrink any further? Advice will be much appreciated.

Dexter

[RnB]

I've used Z-poxy on a couple of guitars & while later on, one shows signs of pore sinking, but the other didn't. I know I didn't fill them 3 times like Todd Stock recommends. It sure makes the grain stand out. 24 hrs should be enough cure time unless the mix wasn't done proportionally? Others have complained about the same problem & claim better results w/ WestSytems epoxy. I have not tried it....

3-part Tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYHxMg7n9cI

[johnnparchem]

I have not had the pores shrink back with zpoxy. I usually do three coats. Generally just one a day.

I did have a thought: One thing I have noticed is zpoxy is thick and it is easy to bridge the pores instead of filling them. It really takes work to push it into the pores. I use an epoxy applicator or a credit card and really push it into the pores. I like to see bubbles coming up through the zpoxy when I am working an area. If I have not seen them I am generally not getting the zpoxy into the pores. I work an area as long as the bubbles keep coming up. I can imagine a thin film of zpoxy over a pore sagging a bit after time or based on the weather condition.