Cellulose Varnish + Shellac...compatible?

Much easier, and much safer, to use water based products. Condition, sand, tone variance, sand, stain, sand, spray top-coat x 3 with 600 in between..

-- Steve, The Hill Country, TX; www.themillworkguys.com

‘Ello, ‘Ello, ‘Ello

Just saw that you are in Cambridge, when you say “spirit” based stain, do you mean COLRON?

That stuff melts plastic so I don’t know what it would do a shellac sealer.

I would go the waterbased route, look at Woodfinishesdirect.co.uk, Their w/b stains are mixable and can be diluted which will give you better control for colour matching. The Fiddes Hardwax Oil my be worth a look too.

Cellulose won’t have any effect on w/b stain. Are you applying the topcoat by brush? If you are I’d suggest polyurethane.

Of course, it goes without saying, whatever you do, try it on a test piece first.

-- Do or do not, there is no try

Steve, Remers, thanks for the info fellahs, I’ll look at the water based route as you both appear to favour that way of staining.

Remers, no the stain is not COLRON, I bought a gallon can of “medium oak” from ebay, I’ve tested it on a few raw scraps to establish it’s colour, it seems OK and I liked the colour but I’ll have a look at the web site you recommend

-- No one plans to fail, they just, just fail to plan