Tinting shellac vs. EM6000

[timfred]

Who has experience with tinting both? (translucent colors...Transtint or similar)

I want to experiment with finish schedule that would look something like this:

Shellac to seal wood
Grain fill
Shellac to seal grain filler
<Color Coats>
EM6000 top coat

I'm torn between using shellac or EM6000 as the color coats. Both would be sprayed. I'm worried about the shellac getting too thick under the EM6000 and causing crazing, but I've heard EM6000 is more difficult to tint.

Experience?

 

[Vizcaster]

Do you have contamination issues or an unknown from a prior finish that would require shellac? Otherwise I only use shellac as a barrier to keep stain from lifting up into the finish. I would recommend, as long as you're already getting comfortable with the Target Coatings product line, that you try EM1000 sealer. It's not only got all the good stuff that makes it a great sanding sealer as a base coat (adhesion, bridges the grain and doesn't shrink back, sands easily), but it's very easy to see what color you're mixing when you use it as a base for a toner/shader. It works very well not only with Transtint (dye) but also with Mixol (pigment). Of course you still need to do test panels but it's a great product. And EM6000 is my go-to topcoat. I've been able to drop-fill for invisible repairs just like nitro.

 

[timfred]

Thanks for your input. I like shellac's ability to "pop" figure, especially in darker woods like figured mahogany and walnut, and I usually pad on the first coats really wet to get maximum absorbsion into the figure. EM1000 might do the same thing, I guess I was just starting with what I knew.

What makes em1000 better than em6000 for tinting?

 

[Vizcaster]

EM6000 is just like any other water based topcoat -- it's milky white in the can. You can mix pigment or dye into it (better to drip the tint into some water first then mix it into the lacquer to prevent it from 'snotting'). However, because of the translucency of the emulsion it's difficult to see the color until you apply a test coating and let it dry.

The Em1000 is not as milky, in fact it's almost clear, so it's much easier to judge what you're doing mixing color into it. I also find that even without the tint-ability feature, the EM1000 is a very good sealer. I believe the EM1000 has polysester resin instead of acrylic, and is better at locking in the grain on the surface so when things shrink back over time it won't start to show the grain lines (although I haven't compared it over time).

Also in that Em1000 sealer family is EM6500 which comes either white (as a paint base for other colors - or mix it with clear Em1000 to get a translucent base for butterscoth blonde) or "raven black" (which is a beautiful, neutral, opaque black; I've got it on my front door). You can even have the EM6500 tinted to Benjamin Moore paint colors (I matched a sprayed built-in bookcase with the house paint that the painters used for the rest of the trim and you can't see any difference in the color).

You haven't mentioned if you're using figured woods, but I've had good success with target's clear base for their stain system, basically works the same as a washcoat of boiled linseed oil to bring out the translucence of the bare wood but it's water based. Similar effect to amber shellac as a first step on mahogany for instance.

But however you start the process, the end goal should be clearcoats of EM6000 - that stuff burns in beautifully with no witness lines and buffs out nicely.

 

[timfred]

Wow, thanks, lots of info there. I hadn't heard of the stain base...it looks like waterborne linseed oil. Could be interesting replacement for BLO or Danish oil to pop figure.

I'dve to minimize the number of products, but some of these might require some experimenting.

 

[Vizcaster]

Yes exactly that's what the clear stain base is sold for, to replicate applying BLO before stain/seal/topcoat. However I tend to use it to lighten the color of their other stains (two parts clear stain base to one part brown mahogany for example). Works beautifully on mahogany, haven't tried their stains on much else other than birch veneer ply.