Red Shellac

[Claven2]

FWIW, if you are trying to duplicate early Russian Shellac, buy garnet shellac flake online and mix your own with denatured or pure alcohol. It's the actual correct colour.

[Tarheel]

Rivets, if you want it to have that old world look, try to locate some "alkanet root powder", comes in a variety of shades of red almost to purple. Good luck!

[gew8805]

I want to get amber shellac closer to Red . I heard you can do it by adding red food coloring to get the hue closer to red. Anyone done this and found it truly works well.

Something else to keep in mind, food coloring is water based and will not mix with shellac.

[A. F Medic]

Try Easter egg dye in the little bottles. Probably oil based. Works for me but I have not used it on a large project.

I like the idea of using a small amount of paint tint....

[WeeDavie41]

I know that from the nineteenth century through to the mid part of the twentieth century shellac was a proprietary material for finishing wood, both exterior and interior surfaces. One of the methods used during the Arts Crafts movement in the finishing of oak furniture was to fume the wood with ammonia and then apply progressive coats of shell lac that had been tinted with “dragon’s blood”. If you want to retain that old world look do not use blond or bleached shellac. To take the curs of the shine after the last coat buff the surface down with OOOO metal wool and then apply a good coat of a dark paste wax and buff.