Shellac...A Truly Great Finish!

veryday I am asked by my customers about the finishes on their furniture. “How do I take clean it? Should I use polishes? What does the sunlight do to it? What is this finish?”
These are just a few of the many question people want to know the answers to about their furniture and I am always happy to educate them. I do believe the saying that “the best customer is an educated one.” So this edition of my newsletter will begin a series in which I will talk about one well known, but little understood finish called Shellac.
Much of the manufactured shellac we use around the world today comes from the Zinsser Company. The following background information was taken from their website:
In 1849, William Zinsser emigrated from Germany to New York City and set up the United States’ first shellac beaching plant on Manhattan’s west side. He founded his new company, William Zinsser & Co., Inc., on the principals of quality and innovation. The company has remained true to these principals for over 150 years.
Zinsser’s commitment to quality was evident early on. In 1853, the company’s first shellac product, White French Varnish, received a First Premium Award at the International Exhibit in Philadelphia. The company’s solutions of shellac in alcohol – Bulls Eye® Shellac – quickly became popular as the first quick-drying clear wood finishes in the country. “Bulls Eye” and “Zinsser” became synonymous with “top quality”.
If you want to know more about Zinsser, please go their website at: http://www.zinsser.com
The following is a brief history of shellac which you will probably find very interesting. Shellac, as the word is commonly used, refers to all forms of purified lac, a natural resin secreted by the tiny lac insect on certain trees, principally in India and Thailand.
“Lac” is derived from the Sanskrit word “lakh” which means 100,000 and refers to the vast swarms of insect larvae that inundate lac trees during the brood season. Not much is known regarding the very early history of shellac. In the Vedic period about 3,000 years ago it was called “Laksha.” One of the Vedic books contains an account of a whole palace constructed entirely out of lac resin.
Ancient Chinese and Indian civilizations used the dye extracted from lac for dyeing silk and leather and as a cosmetic rouge and a coloring for head ornaments. The superior adhesive quality of the resin made it useful for setting jewels and sword hilts as well as repairing broken pottery. The residue left after the extraction of the dye was made into a grinding wheel for jade – a technique still in use today.


It was in the field of medicine, however, that the most extensive applications for lac were discovered. It was prescribed either as an emollient, or as a stimulant to tissue growth or in the treatment of gum hemorrhages and menstrual disorders. In veterinary medicine lac was mixed with lard and the paste used to fill the cavities in the hooves of horses and cattle.
Following the historical journey of Marco Polo to the Orient in the late 13th century, shellac and its by-products began to make their way into European commerce and industry. Accounts dating as far back as 1534 describe the cultivation, harvesting, processing and use of lac in extraordinary detail.
By the mid-17th century shellac resin, shellac dye and shellac wax were used with increasing frequency by painters not only to create their masterpieces, but also to provide them with a protective finish.
Shellac became the preferred finish for craftsmen and artisans; it was the coating of choice for fine furniture, woodcarvings, and turnings. To this day some of the finest museum pieces still have their original shellac finish.
How Insects Make Shellac
Shellac has the distinction of being the only known commercial resin of animal origin. It is produced by a tiny red insect (Laccifer lacca) which, in its larval stage, is about the size of an apple seed. Their whole life cycle spans six months and is devoted to eating, propagating and creating lac as a protective cocoon for their larvae.
During certain seasons of the year, these tiny red insects swarm in such great numbers that the trees at times take on a red or pinkish color. When settled on the twigs and branches, they project a stinger-like proboscis to penetrate the bark.
Sucking the sap, they begin absorbing it until they die. In shellac lore this is the feast of death. While they eat they propagate, with each female producing about one thousand eggs before dying.
In the body of the lac insect the digested tree sap undergoes a chemical transformation and is eventually secreted through pores. On contact with the air, it forms a hard shell-like covering over the entire swarm. In time this covering becomes a composite crust for the twig and insects. Only about five percent of the insects amassed on the trees are males. The female is the main shellac producer.
While she is secreting lac, she is preparing herself to die after providing a fluid in which her eggs will mature and from which the future supply of bugs will come, to repeat the process of swarming, propagating and creating the next season's shellac harvest.
The males, having fertilized the hordes of females, also begin their life-ending feast. Although they contribute relatively little more to the shellac crop, they have already assured an ample supply because the females vastly increase their output of lac after being fertilized. The great mass of male and female bugs on each tree gradually becomes inactive as the shell-like covering forms over them. In the sixth or seventh months, the young begin to break through the crust and swarm to new feeding grounds.
Shellac cultivation yields a large crop by helping the larvae find better locations for their feast. This involves simply cutting lac-bearing twigs from an infested tree a few days before the emergence of the larvae. A bundle of such twigs, known as broodlac, is tied to an un-infested tree on which there are many tender new shoots. This results in a higher survival rate of insects and a greater yield of lac since only a little broodlac gives forth sufficient larvae to infest a tree thoroughly. No further attention is needed until shellac is harvested.
How Lac Is Harvested
Shortly after the young have swarmed at the end of the adults' life cycle, natives begin to harvest the lac encrustation from the trees. Only one crop is taken per tree. Young are hatched, however, twice a year. Natives gather millions of encrusted twigs, called sticklac, for transport to simple factories or refining centers where the lac crust is scraped off and processed. The resin is also collected in the forest or orchard by smacking the branches with a wooden mallet. This material is called grainlac. In either case, this is the first step in the harvest of shellac resin.
At refining centers, sticklac is scraped to remove the resin from the twigs and then it is ground (as is grainlac), usually in a primitive, hand-cranked mill. At this stage, the ground lac contains a mixture of resin, insect remains, twigs and other impurities. This is now passed through a coarse screen to remove the larger size twigs. After the lac is ground and the chaff sifted out, it is soaked in water for several hours in large cup-shaped jars. These are about two feet high and have rough serrated inner surfaces.
A ghasandar jumps into the jar and rubs the lac with his feet against the rough surfaces. This action causes the lac seeds to break open, releasing dye and insect remains. The ground lac is rinsed to remove the dye and then spread out on a concrete floor to dry in the sun. The dried resin is called seedlac because of its grain-like appearance and ranges in color from pale lemon to dark red.
As you have read, this is quite an interesting process from tree to bug to human manipulation to create one of the world’s best finishes for not only wood, but many other coatings including fruits and vegetables and pharmaceuticals! Shellac truly is a miraculous product which has even more applications which I will touch on in a future newsletter.

In our workshop we use shellac every day to refinish and to restore old pieces of furniture and decorative accessories like boxes and frames. It proves to be a universal finish which renews not only older shellac finishes, but old lacquer and varnish finishes. A fairly simple “padding” or wiping application on a properly cleaned and prepared surface will return a dry looking old finish back to its original beauty. We usually do a very fine high-grit sanding to give the surface a final smoothness and then hand apply a paste wax followed with buffing to achieve a beautiful smooth glowing surface.



Previous Editions:
Shellac...A Truly Great Finish! || Signs of Rebound in Antiques Market || CARING FOR FINE ANTIQUE FURNITURE || Deloitte tell clients: buy antiques now ||