Ebony,Rosewood,and African Blackwood all smearing black on contrasting Holly

swifty6

Member
I am making Tea caddies with a variety of banding using all of the exotic black woods with a contrasting white usually holly. I finish with a seal coat of 1 pound cut shellac, then build a finish of shellac. All of the above have smeared black onto the holly. This does not happen with dyed black veneer. It has become such a problem that I test a piece of banding with shellac before installing it into the piece I am working with.I tried spray shellac and had the same outcome.
I vacuum each piece, and use a tack cloth before using the shellac. Have any of you had the same problem and how did you fix it? 
 
You could try sealing the holly with several coats of shellac using a small artist brush before you start the finishing process.  It is time consuming, but it may work.


Kirk
 
I reached out to a local woodworker who uses a lot of exotics. He suggested that I crate the banding with a polyurethane then glue it in place with an epoxy(West Systems) then I can finish the project with Shellac.
 
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