I’m building some frame and panel cabinets for my kitchen out of mahog. I want to keep the appearence as close to the freshly planned wood as possible. So no staining. Would a blond shellac darken the wood much? Any recommendations on finishes that would help achieve my goal? BTW, I’m partial to wax finishes but don’t think that would be practical here.
Thanks.
Replies
Don't have any experience with blond shellac, but can recommend pure tung oil. It will darken the mahogany somewhat, but will really bring the beauty of the grain out. A couple of coats (3-5) of TO followed up by wax would be a nice finish for your cabinets IMHO.
Any penetrating finish like oil is going to darken the wood. It's the trade-off you get for enhancing the figure. You're right that wax is not really suitable for kitchen use. I'd use 2 light coats of matte water-borne polyurethane.
DR
Blond shellac won't darken mahog very much. I recommend that you mix your own shellac; go to http://www.shellac.net and order the super platinum grade shellac, it has very little color to it.
Others will decry the use of shellac in a kitchen and say use poly. Ignore them. Shellac is durable though not as hard as poly. The big advantage is you can easily repair shellac, but you can't repair poly without it looking like a repair. If you're going to ding your cabinets, might as well make sure you can fix the dings!
Shellac isn't as "tough" as poly, but it actually is harder than poly. Poly resists scratching by giving enough to resist the abrasive. Shellac will scratch if abraded. Thats what rubbing our a finish does, make finer and finer scratches. Shellac rubs out well, poly with more difficulty. The more important reason not to use shellac in kitchen cabinets is the common household cleaners--especially those with ammonia. Ammonia will destroy shellac.
Remember, mahogany will darken considerably over time regardless of the finish. Its not so fast or dramatic as cherry, but quite noticable.
I'm aware of the differences between shellac and poly--I'm not afraid to use shellac in a kitchen because I don't use ammonia-based cleaners in my kitchen. They're a no-no for the granite countertops, so the cleaners I use are more gentle. I figure if people can alter what cleaner they use for granite, why not for their wood cabinets?
I think that shellac is underused, despite it's ease of application, repair, and toughness. Not to mention it doesn't look like poly...Recommending the use of "Hide Signatures" option under "My Preferences" since 2005
Jeff Jewitt has color plates on his web site showing the different shellacs he sells on a variety of woods. Kinda small, but might be helpful.
http://homesteadfinishing.com/htdocs/shellac3.htm
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Do unto others as you tell them they should do unto you....
I agree that blonde dewaxed shellac will not really darken the wood, makes it warmer looking ,not darker. If you use dewaxed shellac, I would cut the mix to a 1lb cut. You won't get brush marks that way. I would add a second coat, examine ,add a third if neccesary. Then you can apply a varnish over DEWAXED shellac. Recently I have been using a wiping varnish. I make my own by adding 50% thinner to 50% varnish. You need more coats, lot's more for the same coverage as brushing. I wipe it because I get better results than brushing. No sanding or leveling to deal with. I apply wiping varnish, wait til dry,mayde 1 or 2 hours,apply again. Sometimes I apply four coats in a day.I usaually apply 8 to 10 coats all together. If the varnish is applied when dry but not hard yet, you can reapply without sanding, except for dust particles possibly.
You could skip the shellac, just varnish, you could shellac only. As another post mentioned ,varnish may be the correct choice for a kitchen.
mike
Shellac for kitchen cabinets does not make sense to me. Everyone is talking about hardness. How about water resistance? In my kitchen I often am boiling or simmering on the stove which creates a LOT of water vapor.Gretchen
Strangely enough, given the reputation, shellac is just about the best finish there is at preventing water vapor from transferring into wood, considerably better than varnish in that respect. On vertical surfaces liquid water would never stand enough to cause problems. Shellac's weakness as far as kitchens go is that certain household cleaners with ammonia, and other household chemicals can be deadly to it.
So how does this still make it such a good finish for kitchen cabinets. They need to be wiped down from time to time. My cabinets over the stove get a lot of steam. I just don't think it is a durable/smart finish for a kitchen.Gretchen
Gretchan, IMO, shellac is not a good choise for kitchens for exactly the points made. There are a couple of other choices if someone wants to stay away from oil based poly finishes.
In the shop I was involved with we frequently used shellac (for watervapor protection) followed by a NC lacquer. It made a very nice and much more durable and cleanable finish than shellac alone. Also excellent these days are a number of waterborne finishes. Many are approved by the association of manufacturers of kitchen cabinets. However, most of these require spray equipment. Then, there is always non-poly varnishes. These are excellent choices and if the correct film thickness is built up they are very protective without looking "plasticy".Howie.........
I guess I have been unclear, since I didn't say shellac was good for kitchens, it is not. But the main reason is susceptibility to chemicals. Steam, ie. heat plus moisture wouldn't be good either. Moisture per se isn't the problem.
I would agree. Not a good choice. BUT it was still held out there for the original poster as a possibility. WHY do that just to make your points that it is a good water vapor barrier. People come for basic information for specific projects. As we all know, in a perfect world, ANYthing is possible. But some things are not as good as other things. Speak to the point.
Gretchen
I don't understand, every post I made said it had problems for use in kitchens. Pondfish promoted it for kitchens.
Hey Gretchen, leave Steve alone. I believe that shellac is OK in a kitchen if you aren't using ammonia. Shellac is tough and water resistant (perhaps the best vapor barrier around). I don't use ammonia in my kitchen because I have stone countertops, where ammonia is a no-no.
Shellac has an undeserved and incorrect reputation in being not durable enough for many jobs. In truth it is very tough stuff and--the real reason I like it over poly--it is easy to repair. You can't repair poly without it loking like repaired poly.
Steve and others like yourself may not agree with this opinion, but hey, we all make our own decisions. I vote for repairability and durability--and good looks over non-repairable plastic looking yuck!Recommending the use of "Hide Signatures" option under "My Preferences" since 2005
Shellac is great stuff but for kitchen cabinets you want something that wil stand up to the cleaners routinely used in a kitchen. Here's a suggestion.
Wipe your new cabinets with a damp rag. If the look of the wet wood is the finish you want, apply 3 or 4 coats of water-based poly. It dries clear, it's hard, can be repaired and it doesn't yellow over time. Sand lightly between coats to get rid of any raised grain. If you want a satin finish, use gloss for the under coats and satin for the finish coat. An added benefit is, unlike shellac, you won't get drunk on the fumes.
That's an added benefit? No seriously thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I tend more towards shellac even if it isn't as durable. To be honest, I don't clean my cabinets very often, read never in five years, so that danage from cleaners isn't an issue.
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