lol. I'm no expert but it's a great cheap way of doing it. Search for French Polishing and you will see how skilled a job it is to get that perfect finish.

Thank you Mike. Not everyone's cup of tea but some will like to use this either in woodturning or woodworking in general.

Thank you Bram. It can be hard work, add some oil to the mix like Tung Oil or BLO and it then becomes what they call Shine Juice.

LOL, Thank you Alan. It really takes a lot of work compared to just applying a bit of wax. You will see this in next weeks videos where I spent hours using this.

They would a little bit. I usually have them fairly small as I use a plastic bottle lid to fill my container. I was quite surprised on how quickly they dissolve.

Thank you Mart. That's really interesting as I think Alan from As Wood Turns uses something like that a lot of the time which I couldn't find anything similar too. Be interested to hear more details on what you use as I would like to try that too.

@@PaulLockwood i use polyurethane varnish gloss from screwfix and white spirit again from screwfix, if you try it, make sure you get the oil based varnish, don't make the mistake i made and get the water base, i quite like using it, drys quickly though not as fast as spray gloss lacquer , and use a lint free cloth, doesn't seem to work well with paper towels or not the ones i use, cheers Mart

@@martkt10 Thank you. Which varnish though as they don't list any as polyurethane. Perhaps you can let me know the product numbers.

@@PaulLockwood its the trade yacht varnish 16 hours drying time, brushes clean with white spirit, I should say i used to use the ronseal gloss varnish, but that was too expensive , the screwfix varnish is cheap, i looked on my mixing bottle, its more like 70/30, not sure where i got the 50/50 from, the the ronseal was a lot thicker, when i use it, i don't use a sealer, as every time it went bubbly

@@PaulLockwood Ronseal Hardglaze Interior Ultra Tough Gloss Clear is the best, but it was quite expensive ,but much better than the screwfix brand

Yes if you really wanted to. I have seen some use shellac before. It may need longer to harden and dry properly if too much is put on.

Not that I know of. You dissolve the flakes into alcohol so that they become a liquid, it's that alcohol that evaporates quickly giving the hard finish. Oil is used to allow coats to be added over the top. Search for some French Polishing videos and you will see just how much a skill it is to use this properly.

Yes, French Polishing is an arduous task to say the least. I figured if Lacquer has things to retard the evaporation of its solvent (a bit of a necessity), and since it was applied and cures (More of less) the same way as shellac, that something could (or under certain conditions, should) Be added to the shellac to duplicate the curing process of lacquer to help with leveling, and for wood, allow deeper absorption into the wood. Well, I recon I'll review a variety of alcohols and check their evaporation rates test the solubility of shellac in those solvents which have a lower evaporation rate. Many thanks Paul, I enjoy your videos, and you picked up a new subscriber@@PaulLockwood

Thank you Andy. Commented and subscribed after watching your video.