I give the shellac on the bench a week to cure and return to try sanding it down and waxing. In the woodworking books they recommend knocking down the finish with a wet sanding using mineral spirits or mineral oil (or a mixture of both), followed by a buffing with steel wool. The knockdown portion uses sandpaper and is intended to smooth out any imperfections in the finish like lap marks or orange peel.

Overall the finish is smooth, but my concern is that it’s too glassy and I want to dull it up. I start with 400 grit sandpaper and mineral spirits. The mineral spirits gives some bite to the paper and there’s a little bit of brown sludge that builds up. I then try the mineral oil and that is harder to get a sense of it works. The sandpaper ends up being so oily that it doesn’t seem to have any friction to actually sand things down.

For the most part I stick with mineral spirits, moving from 400 to 600 grit sandpaper. It’s tedious and time consuming work and it doesn’t magically dull up the finish. The other propblem is that in some spots the shellac takes on a white hazy look that I thought using mineral spirits should avoid.

After I finish the sandpaper, I start applying paste wax using steel wool. This is supposed to make a nice satin finish, but overall the bench is still a bit shiny. I give up after a coat of wax because it will take too much sanding to dull the shellac up and overall the bench still looks decent.

The panel to cover up the holes from the removal of HVAC ducts is pretty much finished with stain and some shellac. I’ll continue to apply some shellac during the week and let it dry a few days before sanding down with mineral oil, sandpaper and then steel wool with paste wax.