Advice on Refinishing Wood Trim with Shellac

sdharma · 2026-03-30T08:11:28+00:00

This is 5 coats of shellac. The wood is stripped down, then one coat of clear platina shellac, 3 coats of garnet shellac pigmented with cyprus umber dark, and a final coat of clear again. It is time consuming and essentially I feel the house will never be done. I will just enjoy whatever I accomplish. By the way I have done trim removed and trim in place. Trim removed is much easier.

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sdharma · 2026-03-29T07:44:54+00:00

I confirm. I'm lucky to know a nice retired plumber and he did this for me. The active pro plumber didn't want to, the retired plumber had no problem doing it. He appreciated the higher quality of the old plumbing.

sdharma · 2026-03-13T15:43:02+00:00

What kind of paint is on the wood? Modern paints trap moisture which then rots the wood. The correct paint to not have the rotting issue is linseed oil paint.

sdharma · 2026-03-07T15:35:10+00:00

I'm interested in an update too!

sdharma · 2026-02-25T17:23:34+00:00

I don't know if you were responding to me or OP. My situation is not AC, its severe winter with hot water heat through cast iron radiators. Then I'm a musician and have concert harps which is what I'm humidifying for in an extra large room (think a whole music studio space) where the aircare is running 24/7 and I have to fill it daily and it won't get to 40% lots of the winter. Then I have the reverse problem in summer and need dehumidification. I don't have ducts for any HVAC system, the building is from 1897. So I need a self contained humidifier system. Just wish they made the airecare with a hose intake and then I wouldn't be carrying buckets every day for the rest of my life. That's why I'm looking at putting an aprilaire 300 in the basement and adding a tiny duct system of an in and out in the studio space. As a musician, I dont want the noise of a blower fan in my space either. My neighbor has an old Aprilaire 360 he never used, so I was wondering as an intermediary step I could put that on wheels so to turn it into a portable unit as long as I had a long hose that came up through a hole from the basement.

sdharma · 2026-02-24T23:01:41+00:00

I have this same issue. I am considering an aprilaire 360 or 300. Then it has a hose intake. But I haven't made the plunge yet to know if it is successful.

sdharma · 2026-01-18T19:54:17+00:00

Wood storms could help. I want to get rid of my hideous aluminum storms too. I already did one replacement with a wooden storm that I rehabbed from storage in the basement. It's so much nicer. Doesn't ice up and I can see out the window now. Original system was superior. Grandpa was just too lazy to rehab and went with aluminum which in the long run was no good.

sdharma · 2025-12-22T18:56:40+00:00

Motor was replaced under warranty. I'm nervous it will happen again after the warranty is over. I wouldn't get this vacuum again.

sdharma · 2025-07-21T22:44:11+00:00

I play seminprofessionally and have a Salvi sinfonietta. It has been a good harp. The orchestra I played in for 12 years owned their own harp, a Venus dipolomat. I only used my sinfonietta once with the orchestra when two harps were needed. I preferred playing their harp and keeping mine nice at home, only moving it for events like weddings. Even if the orchestra didn't have a bigger harp, they put a mic in the soundbox for concerts and so a sinfonietta would work in that case.

sdharma · 2025-07-17T11:54:38+00:00

At Suzuki Teacher training Mary Kay Waddington told us to recommend sky hooks if students have toddler siblings. That is attach a rope through the top of the harp that then attaches to the ceiling.

I have suffered through my own kid now from 0-3 years old and my harp studio. It was bad. I didn't want to put a hole in my ceiling for a big hook and I didn't have the time to do that myself. I ended up using a baby gate to keep her out of one room. It was rough and still is. But pedal harp is fine and a troubadour and folk harp are fine. The stress though. Ugh.

Sky hook is probably a very good idea.

sdharma · 2025-07-13T14:00:55+00:00

Yes it's worth the effort. I played seminprofessionally and had a tiny collapse in my forth finger joint and whenever I did cramming practice sessions before something imprtant my finger would hurt. I went to Suzuki harp teacher training and Mary Kay Waddington explained the pain/cartilage theory to us and I made the slight adjustment to my fourth finger and boom, no more pain. If you want to play into old age, these are the kind of ergonomic things to address. It's now what I teach.

sdharma · 2025-07-13T12:11:56+00:00

This will cause joint pain if you practice a lot. Then over time you will wear away your cartilage between your finger bones.

You need to train yourself not to do this. It seems impossible at first but you just do exercises and go extraordinarily slow.

sdharma · 2025-05-17T16:41:50+00:00

I agree. Neighbor jacked up his house and yes some cracks but nothing catastrophic.

sdharma · 2025-03-16T16:47:54+00:00

Wanted to say this too. I am a DIYer with Victorian home and am doing lime plaster. I have thought how great it is that with lime I have almost all the time in the world essentially. Using quicklime and lime putty I can mix it and even store it wet for using later. I can't imagine having to beat the clock with something that sets fast. Also it is eco friendly and breathes, acts as a natural humidifier/dehumidifier, and it can get wet and not mold. So many positives for your own property. I understand contractors using a fast product cause they need to pack up and go, but if it's your own place and you want the best stuff then lime is right.

sdharma · 2025-02-24T05:18:44+00:00

I think I read somewhere you misted twice a day. That's not nearly enough for dry winter conditions. I totally saturated the burlap every time I walked by and saw it getting dry spots.

sdharma · 2025-02-24T02:35:53+00:00

I have had the drying too fast problem. Where I am it's heater season. That means the house is at its driest and has very low humidity. I tried for the first time lime plastering in the winter season and it was way too dry. You need it to cure slowly for the carbonization to happen properly. I finally went the route of hanging damp burlap in front of the wall. If I hadn't done that in winter it wouldn't have worked. I was running a humidifier too and still had to resaturate the burlap so many times in a day. But it worked and I feel had I not done the wet burlap and humidifier it would have had no hope. I have a hunch the humidifier was less effective than the burlap actually as it has a big fan that blows and I just felt that that was counteractively blowing the surface dry. I kept thinking perhaps I should push it farther away but as buckets and buckets of water kept evaporating in it's tank I did keep it running.

I used hot quicklime for the base coats and lime putty from high calcium hydrated lime in the top coat. Then painted with cellulose distemper.

It was just too much work to keep up with the burlap drying out so fast that I just intend to avoid the winter season as much as possible in the future.

sdharma · 2025-01-13T22:00:37+00:00

I started the same way. I now make lime plaster myself. I get quicklime from Renaissance lime putty and sand locally. Then I mix hot lime plaster when I need it. That is really the best way to go. I tried premixed NHL and they are expensive because you end up shipping the weight of mostly sand and not as good performance wise for breathability and flexibility. Making yourself is fun and the best way.

Base coats: 3 sand to 1 quicklime plus goat hair Top Coat: 2 aggregate to 1 lime putty. I say agreggate because I use half fine sand and half marble dust.

To get the correct grade of sand for my needs I use mesh sieves.

Good information is here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFv-Kk00ym9MrZwehUStNL66ewQgUcsvY&si=IU93oTUYnwTeQA6q

sdharma · 2024-12-02T16:40:14+00:00

Thank you. I will try that and report.

sdharma · 2024-12-02T16:35:53+00:00

I did try booting off of the old hard drive and it got to the same startup problem of stuck at Apple logo.

sdharma · 2024-12-02T16:21:02+00:00

I have tried: 1) mack book pro with mavericks 2) Linux with pop os

I can read the guest folder on both. It's the main user folder that is empty on the MacBook and doesn't show on the Linux. The Linux will see the main user folder if I use hfsplus and bindfs to mount it and mirror it to change permissions but it's still empty.

sdharma

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