Interesting video about shellac

[Steve Barker]

's a wonder the stuff isn't $500 a pound...

[Larry Jaques]

Once India, Pakistan, and China make it into the 21st century, it will be. And it will be produced here, where there are cheap wages. Y'know, after the collapse.

-- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Certainly is labor intensive. Thanks for posting, it was very interesting.

[WW]

Quite an education. I knew nothing about that. Suprised it don't cost more. WW

[Dave]

It's a wonder that the process involved as it did. Somewhere along the annals of history, someone noticed the durable finish that lac left on wood. How they determined that it was residue left from the lac bug is beyond me.

[Larry Blanchard]

IIRC, the stuff was originally harvested for the red dye. The shellac was a byproduct :-).

[Roy]

Great post, thank you for providing the info. I was earlier today searching for info on how light colored shellac (blonde, super-blonde) was made. I found one source that said color depended on the type of tree the shellac came from as does this video. Seems to me there is a lot more blonde and superblonde available now than say, five or more years ago. Now I am curious if there is some sort of chemical process to make more light colored shellac.

Does anyone KNOW of any method used to produce lighter colors? I'd like the primary source of the process if possible. I can certainly speculate on several options for mechanical filtering and bleaching of the melt. I used to do that sort of thing in my old life. Any documentation would be appreciated.

I even went so far as to send a message to shellac.net asking for any info they could share. Thought I'd post here in case Paddy was checking the wreck tonight.

Thanks for any info.

Regards, Roy

No kidding. Fascinating to watch them create the thin sheets.

[Larry Blanchard]

Don't know where you looked, but a quick Google found:

"Bleaching begins with dissolving seedlac, which is alkali-soluble, in an aqueous solution of sodium carbonate. The solution is then passed through a fine screen to remove insoluble lac, dirt, twigs, etc. The resin is then bleached with a dilute solution of sodium hypochlorite to the desired color. The shellac is then precipitated from the solution by the addition of dilute sulfuric acid, filtered, and washed with water. It is dried in vacuum driers and ground into a white powder ready for shipment to a plant that will add liquid to the flakes."

[Father Haskell]

Process is as labor intensive as silk manufacture. Looks like lac bugs are as dependent on human cultivation as are silkworms, said to be the only truly domesticated insect.

[Roy]

After reading your post I added the word bleaching to the search string and Bing found a bunch of sites. Before that I mostly found sites that covered how to dissolve flakes and a couple others on hand processing. I don't like Google's new privacy policy so am restricted to 10 results a page since I don't have an account. I'm trying all the other search engines out now. Bing at least allows

50 results a page, so it is a lot faster to view results than Google.

Thanks again!

Regards, Roy