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Sasquatch's cousin the koala bear might do the trick. Don't ask me to put in a good word, he isn't from my side of the family.

Sasquatch wrote:Or, put a little stain in your shellac mix, and do both at once.

I'm getting ready to finish my first pipe and was wondering why this wouldn't work. My plan is to put on a lite coat of stain, and then darken it up with a thin combo layer of stain and shellac. is there any reason why this wouldn't work when attempting a contrast finish?

It's do-able, but if you aren't careful/lucky, you will find it blotchy and uneven.

I don't use pipe cleaners anymore. A cheap medium size artists brush works real well for me. It eliminates any streaking or the lines made when using a pipe cleaner. I also use the brush for bowl coatings. It works great.

Audaxviator wrote:

Sasquatch wrote:Or, put a little stain in your shellac mix, and do both at once.

I'm getting ready to finish my first pipe and was wondering why this wouldn't work. My plan is to put on a lite coat of stain, and then darken it up with a thin combo layer of stain and shellac. is there any reason why this wouldn't work when attempting a contrast finish?

I add ebony stain to shellac for the smooth stamp area on my sandblasted black pipes and it works well but takes a few coats to make it opaque. I don't know how well it will work on a whole smooth pipe.

I'll probably experiment with it at some point, but it sounds like I'd be better off sticking to traditional methods for now. Thanks for the input everyone.

Thanks for all the info here Sasquatch! - I've been using thinned down shellac (3 parts dna 1 part shellac), but have been wiping it off immediately. I'll try your advice of letting it dry then tripoli'ing it.

Hey guys,

I have a question about when to actually apply the shellac. After what grit of sanding do you put on the first coat? If most of you top stain at 600 then I assume it's at 600 or 800 if you go that high. But also, what is the highest grit of sanding you can go up to before the shellac will not adhere to the surface? Or could you go up to 12000 grit and still begin putting the first seal coat down and building on top of that?

And I know, I know... Waste of time and all that, but I'm finding I love the gleam and depth I'm getting from simply polishing up to that level first.

Sand to 600, stain, shellac, buff. Voila!

d.huber wrote:Sand to 600, stain, shellac, buff. Voila!

Nay brother! Sand to 1000! It's a pain in the ass, and therefore worth it!

The Smoking Yeti wrote:

d.huber wrote:Sand to 600, stain, shellac, buff. Voila!

Nay brother! Sand to 1000! It's a pain in the ass, and therefore worth it!

And the Yeti said, "Sand to 1000!" and it was good.

Seriously though, I've now heard this from a few people I respect (though I suspect it's source is from a single individual *cough* Premal *cough*). 'Nuff said.

Do you guys shellac the stem as well? Or just carnauba on the stem?

BlueBriar wrote:Do you guys shellac the stem as well? Or just carnauba on the stem?

Don't shellac the stem. Sand it to as high of a grit as necessary and buff with white diamond. You can use carnauba on the stem, but I haven't found it to be an improvement over white diamond.

The thing about the stem is that you will probably want to sand it to a higher grit than you do the stummel. You could try Micro Mesh if you want to go crazy with it.

Take this for what it's worth (not much) but I notice a difference sanding to 1000, especially on stems. Maybe I don't buff as well as others, but I get a better result sanding to 1000. Everyone has their methods. I find the little bit of extra time gives me a better result.

Jeremiah, I'm confused by your white diamond vs. carnauba comment. They serve different purposes and I notice a significant difference in the shine after carnauba vs. white diamond, alone.

The carnauba serves two purposes. Shine and oxidation protection. You can get shine without carnauba. Just don't expect it to last if you mail the pipe to a high oxidation climate (seaside, etc).

Micah,

I use white diamond and then clean any compounds off with denatured alcohol then buff again. When it's shiny without the compound, it stays shiny pretty well on its own afterwards. I finish with a dry wheel. When I've used carnauba in he past, it just made the stem easier to smudge. Now that I've got new buffing wheels, I may have different results. We shall see.

A clean buff after the wax helps with the smudginess.

It shouldn't smudge. If it's smudging you probably have too much on there. I've always found the stem easier to care for with wax on it. Seems to not scratch quite as easy. Finger prints can be removed with soft/clean microfiber cloth.

Wax on, wax off! Slows oxidation. I live Seaside. Stems will oxidize faster, with nothing.