Re: Spray Paint Over Shellac
My favorite way to finish figured woods and open pore mahogany, korina etc, is to apply several light coats of boiled linseed oil (increases the movement of the grain and increases chatoyance) after the grain has been filled and any water based dyes have been applied. Nitro doesn't stick to oil at all. The best way to move forward from coats of boiled linseed oil to a nitro finish is to use a barrier coat between the two.
The barrier coat is shellac (because shellac sticks to everything and everything sticks to shellac). Once the BLO has dried and cured, shellac can be applied. I like thinning it down with denatured alcohol and using a preval sprayer to get nice thin and even coats. Shellac, when applied by hand can give rise to swirls, ridges and streaks. Shellac is really hard to take down with sanding if the hand rubbed coats are a bit too thick when one wants a nice thin coating of shellac. So, spraying it on is soooooo much better.
Coats of shellac melt into each other like nitro does, so it's a great barrier coat underneath nitro (shellac and nitro melt into each other too).
Once the shellac is dry and cured, you can finish the piece with nitro to your heart's content.
I love shellac even though it's not the easiest to work with. : )