To the average person, shellac probably invokes many negative perceptions. Poor water and heat resistance, difficult to apply, poor drying and low durability are all criticisms that I hear when I mention shellac to my clients or other woodworkers. While some of these criticisms are valid, many are not grounded in fact and are easy to disprove. Other negative aspects are overcome by using proper tools, techniques, and most important -- proper product.

To experienced finishers and restorers of fine furniture the world over, shellac remains the finish of choice. One of the most elegant finishes for furniture, French Polish, is done with shellac. Conservators and restorers of antiques use shellac for re-finishing antiques. And most importantly, its low toxicity makes it a perfect choice for items that come into contact with food or children's toys. There are countless other advantages to using shellac that are listed in at the end of the article. But as with every finish option available, there are disadvantages and these are listed also.

Most people have no idea of what shellac is or where it comes from. Shellac is a natural, organic resin that comes from an insect, Laccifera lacca, that is about the size of an apple seed. This bug alights on certain trees indigenous to India and Thailand and during its reproductive cycle feeds on the sap that it sucks from the twigs of these trees. The bug secretes an amber coloured resinous substance that is called "lac", a word that comes from the Sanskrit "lakh" which means one-hundred thousand. The resin forms a cocoon around the insect which serves to incubate the eggs she lays. This cocoon is the raw material for shellac and is called "sticklac", because it contains resin, parts of the twig and bug remains. The sticklac is scraped off the tree by hand, washed and then refined either chemically or by hand, to produce the raw material available for sale to commerce.

The original cultivation of shellac was not for the resin, but rather, for the dye that gives the resin its characteristic colour. The use of lac dye can be traced back to 250 AD when it was mentioned by Claudius Aelianus, a Roman writer in a volume on natural history. The lac dye was removed by the initial washing of the shellac resin in large kettles, which is also the first step in preparing the resin. This dye remained a valuable commodity until the mid-1800's, when Perkins, an English chemist, synthesized the first chemical 'aniline' dyes which killed the natural dye industry. Fortunately the use of the resin had been firmly established, so the loss of the use of the dye had little impact on shellac trade. The first use of shellac as a protective coating appears as early as 1590 in a work by an English writer who was sent to India to observe the country and its people. Commenting on a procedure for applying lac to wood still on the lathe he writes ( In Old English) "they take a peece of Lac of what colour they will, and as they turne it when it commeth to his fashion they spread the Lac upon the whole peece of woode which presently, with the heat of the turning (melteth the waxe) so that it entreth into the crestes and cleaveth unto it, about the thicknesse of a man's naile: then they burnish it (over) with a broad straw or dry Rushes so (cunningly) that all the woode is covered withall, and it shineth like glasse, most pleasant to behold, and continueth as long as the woode being well looked unto: in this sort they cover all kinde of household stuffe in India".* ( It's interesting that many wood turners still finish this same way today.) * From "Shellac; its production, manufacture, chemistry analysis, commerce and uses." London, Sir I. Pitman & Sons, ltd., 1935 pg. 3.

The use of shellac as a furniture finish never caught on in the West until the early 1800's and it eventually replaced wax and oil finishes. It remained the most widely used protective finish for wood until the 1920's and 30's when it was replaced by nitrocellulose lacquer.