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Hi All,
Have you ever been in the situation when common sense tells you not to do it, but you go ahead anyway. Well, I just completed my second pipe. I decided that I would rusticate, and stain it black. Everything was going fine untill I decided to buff it with tripoli and then carnuba, what a mess. I ended up with a pipe that looks like its been in an atic for the past 50 years. There is this grey dusty film underlay on it. Obviously a rusticated surface is not treated same as a smooth one,(common sense right ?). Now, humbled, I come to the trusted forum praying that someone can help me.
How do you get that beautifull lustre finish on a rusticated surface?
All the best....TANO.

Hi Tano,

Try using shellac.

Rad

Yep, scroll back through the posts in this section. I'm still looking for some old shellac 78s following Todd's suggestion. As for the current mess, if it's mostly wax, a heat gun will bring back the clarity. If it's got lots of that greasy binder from the tripoli stuck in the crevices, try the shellac, which may cut it and clear it up. You'll have to get as much out as you can with a plastic brush, and if it's really thick you may have to wire brush it and refinish.

Thanks guys,
I read a while back that shellac should be mixed in a ratio of one part shellac to ten parts alcohol. I don't understand how you can get a ratio of solid measurment, to a ratio of liquid measurment. Can anybody please tell me what you use to measure with?

if you're willing to deal with little bits and pieces of material flying about your head while you buff, you can probably work some of that out with a dry buff. Just bear down a bit more than you would if you were going about a standard dry buff. Particles of flannel or what-have-you will be everywhere, but you'll get the wax out of the crags.

Tano wrote:I read a while back that shellac should be mixed in a ratio of one part shellac to ten parts alcohol. I don't understand how you can get a ratio of solid measurment, to a ratio of liquid measurment. Can anybody please tell me what you use to measure with?

I just started using shellac, but here's the measurements I used and it seems to work pretty well. I use a standard 1 pound cut. One pound of shellac flakes to one gallon of denatured alcohol. Although I mix the shellac in smaller batches. one cup of alcohol to 1 ounce shellac flakes by weight equals the one pound cut. Then I further cut it by mixing 3 parts alcohol to one part of the shellac mix I'd already made.

The exact measurements I used were: one pint denatured alcohol to 2 ounces by weight of shellac flakes. Let the flakes dissolve. Then I took 1/2 cup of the mixed shellac and added 1-1/2 cups alcohol. This makes a very thin coating that dries quickly. The shellac coats the fibers of the briar and gives a smoother surface for wax to coat. You might have to go full strength of the one pound cut on a rusticated pipe though.

David

You can also use a rotary nylon brush and your dremel to clean up the compound stuck in the rustication. I use one to clean up the rustication after I wire brush it.

All usefull responses, thanks guys!!