1. Did I put on _too_much_ shellac? I passed the point at which the wood grain of the cedar was, um, still visible. What I mean to say is that viewed from a very oblique angle, the finish looks like poly, or epoxy, or whatever. Except, that is, for the orange peel.
2. If I can fix it, how do I do it? I realize that I can just rub it out with denatured alcohol until all of the shellac is off the wood, then start over. However, I would rather not do that.
2a. If I wet sand (presumably with 400 grit and mineral spirits) right through the finish, how hard is it to match the finish? There's no stain on the chest, it was raw cedar, so I don't have to worry about that.
3. Can I spray a coat or several of maybe 1/4# cut with the hope that all the alcohol will somehow flatten out the finish?
4. Will a few coats of wax fill in the small voids in the orange peeled finish?
5. Am I just screwed?
What I was looking for, originally, was a dead flat, shiny finish for this blanket chest. I would hope that that's what I can still get from what I have. Is that a reasonable expectation for shellac? I'm sort of flying blind here, as I'm new to the whole shellac thing.
-Phil Crow
P.S. The damnable thing about polyurinestain is that it ain't very pretty, but at least it's predictable (to me, at least).