Shellac

Tiny bugs live on trees in warm lands. These bugs make a sticky stuff. It is called shellac.

The bugs make it to build small tubes.

People scrape the stuff from the tree bark. They heat it over a fire. This makes it turn into a liquid.

Then they dry it into small flakes.

People mix the flakes with alcohol. This makes a liquid to use. It can make wood look shiny. It can also make food look bright. It is even used on candy!

Long ago, people used it for many things. They used it to make music records. They even used it on ballet shoes. It is a very useful gift from nature.

Shellac is a natural substance made by tiny insects.

These insects are called lac bugs. They live on trees in India and Thailand.

The bugs suck sap from the trees. As they move, they leave behind a sticky material. This material forms small, tube-like shapes on the bark.

To make shellac, people scrape the material from the trees. They put the raw shellac into canvas tubes. Then, they heat it over a fire. The heat makes the shellac turn into a liquid. This liquid seeps out of the cloth. The bark and bugs stay behind. The shellac is dried into flat sheets or small buttons. These are broken into flakes.

People mix these flakes with alcohol to make a liquid. This liquid has many uses. It can be a shiny finish for wood. It can also be a glaze for food and candy. Long ago, people even used shellac to make music records. It was also used to make ballet shoes stiff. Today, it is still used to protect wood and fruit.

Shellac is a natural substance that acts like a type of plastic.

It is a resin made by tiny female insects called lac bugs. These insects live on trees in the forests of India and Thailand.

People use shellac for many different jobs. It can be a shiny finish for wood or a glaze for food. It even helps keep citrus fruit fresh for a longer time. Because it is natural, it is a very special material for many industries.

Making shellac is a step-by-step process that starts in the forest.

The female lac bug, known as Kerria lacca, crawls along tree branches. As it moves, it sucks the sap from the tree. The bug leaves behind a sticky material that forms tube-like shapes on the bark. People scrape this material, called sticklac, off the trees. They put the raw shellac into canvas tubes and heat it over a fire. The heat turns the shellac into a liquid that seeps through the cloth. This leaves the bark and bugs behind, leaving only the pure shellac.

Humans have used shellac for a very long time.

An ancient Indian poem called the Mahabharata even describes a palace coated in shellac. In the year 1220, artists in Spain used it to hold their paint colors together. By the 17th century, people in Europe used shellac as sealing wax for letters. In the 1900s, it became a very popular way to finish wood furniture. It was a dominant wood finish in the Western world for many years.

Shellac has many interesting facts and numbers.

It comes in many colors, from light blonde to dark brown. The color depends on the tree the bug lives on. It can take many bugs to make just one pound of shellac. Between 10,000 and 100,000 bugs might be needed for a small amount. From 1921 to 1928, people used tons of shellac to make 260 million records. These were the 78 rpm gramophone records used to listen to music. Today, it is often sold as dry flakes that you mix with alcohol.

You can see the effects of shellac in many places today.

It is used as a shiny coating on fine musical instruments like guitars. Ballet dancers sometimes use it to make their pointe shoes stiff. This helps them stand on their toes during a dance. It is also used in candy as a shiny glaze. Even though newer plastics have replaced it for floors, shellac is still a wonderful tool. It is easy to fix because new layers bond to old ones.

Shellac is a natural resin secreted by female insects.

This substance is chemically similar to many synthetic polymers. Because of this, it can be considered a natural form of plastic. It is mainly composed of several organic acids. These include aleuritic acid, jalaric acid, and shellolic acid. It also contains natural waxes. Shellac is a versatile material used in many different industries. It serves as a wood finish, a food glaze, and even a component in medication.

The production of shellac begins with the female lac bug, known as Kerria lacca. These insects live in the forests of India and Thailand. They crawl along tree branches and suck the sap from the trees. As they move, they excrete a substance called sticklac. This material forms tunnel-like tubes on the bark. While these are sometimes called cocoons, they are not true cocoons in a biological sense.

To collect the resin, workers scrape the sticklac from the tree bark. This raw material contains bark shavings and insect remains.

Processing the raw material requires heat and filtration. The scraped material is placed into canvas tubes that resemble long socks. These tubes are heated over a fire. The heat causes the shellac to liquefy. As it melts, the liquid seeps through the canvas. This process leaves the bark and the bugs behind in the cloth. The resulting thick, sticky shellac is then dried into flat sheets or hard buttons. These are broken into flakes to be sold.

Users typically prepare shellac by dissolving it in alcohol. Most people use ethyl alcohol or denatured ethanol. The concentration of the liquid is measured in "pound cuts." This term refers to how many pounds of flakes are dissolved in one gallon of alcohol. For example, a 1-lb. cut contains one pound of shellac per gallon. Most commercial mixes are sold at a 3-lb. cut. Because liquid shellac has a limited shelf life of about one year, it is usually sold in dry flake form.

Shellac has a long and varied history of use. The ancient Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata, describes a palace coated in dried shellac. By the year 1220, artists in Spain used shellac as a binding agent for pigments. In the 17th century, it became popular in Europe as a sealing wax for letters. During the 20th century, it was a dominant wood finish in the Western world. It was often used as an "orange shellac" to stain and protect wood cabinetry.

In the past, shellac was essential for the music industry. Most 78 rpm gramophone records were made from shellac compounds. Between 1921 and 1928, tons of shellac were used to produce 260 million records in Europe. In the 1930s, it is estimated that half of all shellac production went toward making these records. Eventually, vinyl replaced shellac for record making. Shellac also has unique uses in the arts. For example, ballet dancers have used it to stiffen the toe boxes of their pointe shoes.

Shellac comes in many different colors. These range from a very light blonde called "platina" to a very dark brown called "garnet." The specific color depends on the type of tree the bugs live on and the time of harvest. Naturally, shellac contains between 3% and 5% wax by volume. Some manufacturers create "dewaxed shellac" by removing this wax. This allows other coatings, like paint, to stick to the surface more easily. Shellac is also highly UV-resistant, meaning it does not darken as it ages.

Today, shellac is used in specialized ways. While modern plastics like polyurethane have replaced it for floors, shellac is still used by luthiers. They use it for "French polishing" fine acoustic stringed instruments. It is also used as a confectioner's glaze on candy. It can even be used to preserve harvested citrus fruit. One of its best features is how it repairs itself. Unlike some synthetic coatings, a new layer of shellac will merge and bond with old layers. This makes touching up damaged areas very easy.