Over the past two years I have experimented with several wood finishes in my dulcimore adventure. Many years ago I had seen on PBS a couple of guys who did wood finishing and showed how to dissolve old phonograph records to make a dark coloring. You see the first mass produced records were shellac based and “melt” in alcohol. Just a few weeks ago I happened across a stack of old jazz records at the Peddlers Mall for just 25 cents apiece and this was just too good a price to pass up for this adventure! I rushed home and broke one into half inch pieces and dropped it in a jar and covered it with alcohol. In the online recipes they called for some more aggressive solvent but I really don’t like that stuff, so alcohol only and in about two weeks, black shellac sludge! Every few days I would agitate the jar for a few minutes to insure a good mix. Once fully dissolved I ran the mixture thru a cheese cloth filter to remove the paper label. I dipped a cotton rag and wiped the poplar sample. Not very impressed the first time, but letting it set for an hour or so and applying a second wipe achieved the black I was looking for. Two more coats of amber shellac then steel wool and paste wax and it is just where I want it, dark but you can still see the wood thru the finish. You know I can’t help but think the 80 year old tunes recorded on these records will play on in this finish…
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