Originally Posted by albrt

Technical note: The photo of the experimental bars above includes a strip of the amber tape that was removed from the Peugeot.

I've been using the Bullseye straight out of the can without dilution. The shellac seems to seep in very readily when you are applying it, but the shellac obviously did not seep in all the way, so the covered half of the tape is still basically naked. On the plus side, it was not terribly difficult to remove. On the minus side, it is probably not as bullet-proof as if the shellac had been absorbed all the way through. Also, if you double wrap and use the full strength shellac, you probably have a layer and a half of plain cloth tape under the shellac. I imagine that would eventually compress and provide the shellac layer with less support, leading to cracking and deterioration.

Would be interested to hear observations of long-time shellac-ers on whether diluted shellac for the first application seeps in better, and whether an untreated layer of cloth underneath affects durability.