# Shellac burst - Sunbursting the hard way



## Joel Rainville (Apr 21, 2008)

Always wanted to try that, and finally took the plunge tonight. Stained a scrap of flame maple using some tobacco brown I had on hand. Sanded it back, and went to work with orange shellac first. Let it set a little then used garnet shellac all over and then pushing it around the edges to try and make a light-mellow-honey-violin-burst. It's not perfect, but I don't exactly hate it.

Any tips or advice for doing this better on my next try? There are some spots where I "pushed" too hard and where the base orange shellac got too light. This is not easy, not for me at least. I used the traditional "pad", a piece of cotton folded up and wrapped in another piece of cotton, lubricated with boiled linseed oil. The kind french polishers use I think.










That finish might end up on this - think semi-hollow with f-hole :


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## Lab123 (May 27, 2007)

Hey Joel....This should be an interesting thread....Please keep posting your progress....I French Polish all my guitars. (shellac,alcohol and mineral oil)...I recently started using Z-Poxy as a filler and boy does it ever make a difference, esp on Rosewoods..I will be doing a burst soon on an acoustic cutaway..keep posting....Larry


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