shellac removal

[David Slade]

I hung some new brushed in a jar of ethyl alcohol to remove the shellac a few days ago. when I took them out some of the hairs were kinked up. They were not touching the bottom of the jar so.. maybe they stayed in too long? It was about 6 hours. I usually swish them in lacquer thinner and work them out by hand.

What do you all do? Anybody else had problems?

[Doug Bernhardt]

Hi David.....not 100% sure I get the question but usually alcohol ( methyl hydrate not beer) will do a great job of ridding yourself of shellac. I just swish/wash out like I would any other paint and voila plop in oil for next use.

[Kent Smith]

Shellac is always self-solvent so alcohol is the answer. You may have to soak for a while. (the shellac, not your liver)

[David Slade]

It's just I soak myself every night and my hair is falling out so I thought there might be a connection...

Doug, Is methyl better than ethyl in this case? I though methyl and wood alcohol were the same. Is that right?

Kent, On an old post you mentioned using either denatured alcohol for orange or isopropol for light shellac. Same preference for shellac removal?

Also, the whole "denatured" thing remains a mystery to me even after reading several posts.
Can you denature alcohol by yourself?

Thank you for the replies! Things are slow on the site so now seemed like a good time to ask!

[Kent Smith]

If memory serves me correctly, denatured alcohol is a blend of ethanol and methanol which makes it undrinkable and subsequently for industrial use only. Many forms have a dye in them to delineate them from other alcohols. In that case, isopropol is preferred for white shellac.

The process of blending these is the denaturing.