PSA: found my old finish schedule from 2018 and cringed hard

I dug out a kitchen job I did in Austin back in 2018 where I used shellac as a sealer under polyurethane on maple cabinets. The yellowing is so bad now the homeowner sent me a pic last week asking if I can fix it. Anybody have a trick for stripping shellac off without ruining the wood underneath?

2 comments

2 Comments

ericb661mo ago

Some of those early shellac batches" isn't really the issue, shellac always yellows with age under poly.

mason_foster681mo ago

Man I heard about that shellac under poly issue from a guy at the trade show last year... he said denatured alcohol on a rag can lift it without wrecking the maple if you're careful. But you gotta work fast or it'll soak in. The real trick is to test a hidden spot first because some of those early shellac batches were way different than what we get now. If it's real bad you might need to sand down past it, but that's a nightmare on cabinets with profiles.