<html> At 08:32 PM 7/1/01 -0700, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>Hi Mark I'm aware of the many amazing properties of shellac but it just never occurred to me to try it in this application until you guys tweaked my duh! barrier.  This might be my answer.I'm in the middle of a plate job that is a very long and arduous story.     Thanks   Dale Erwin<blockquote></blockquote>Hi Dale,                  The only other time I used it as a sealer.  A customer had stripped a cabinet themselves and oiled the case, then decided to have the piano rebuilt and refinished.  No matter what we washed the stripped case with, stripper, lacquer thinner, alcohol.  The oil would do it's nasty work on the finish, from below. A few coats of shellac to seal the grain.   It worked like a charm.   That's what twigged me to use it on the plate. My re finisher mentioned that he now uses it as a sealer on Oak dining room table tops, for a full grain finish, and reckons he has less problems with shrinkage. Roger </html>