Bruce Mercer wrote in 050904 MMD Digest, in reaction to my writing in
050831 MMD Digest, in which I stated: "So denatured alcohol is not
free of water. It has water in it as well":

> This is not correct. I should have been more specific as there
> is more than one type of alcohol that is called denatured".
> One type that has no water in it is the type sold for use as
> a thinner for shellac.

This narrows the subject.  The question now is: what actually is
shellac thinner.

Bruce suggested to look on the Internet, which I did earlier, of
course.  Well, I checked again, using Google.  Here is just one of
many results:

> http://www.frets.com <http://www.frets.com/ 
> Denatured alcohol is really ethanol with a small amount of bad stuff
> in it so you can't drink it, and it works very well.  It is important,
> though, to get a good grade of denatured alcohol.  The cheap grades,
> often sold as "shellac thinner," have too much water or other
> impurities to be effective in a fine finishing product.  Too much
> water will make the resulting shellac finish come out cloudy looking,
> and we don't want that!

I, again, was unable to find a shellac thinner (or any other
denatured alcohol) without water as one of the components.  Maybe
Bruce can give us the Internet sites he suggests to look for?

A nice advice on cleaning wood I did find on the 'Net; may be of help:

> Q. I have a teak dining room table that looks like it has been
> through hell.  When I first bought it, my wife applied some sort
> of polish to it, which I later discovered was not the thing to do.
> There are many water stains and rings on it as well as general
> wearing.  I would like to refinish it and know that it needs teak
> oil.  What is the best way to remove the old residue and get the
> nice teak look back?
>
> A. A 50/50 mix of lacquer thinner and denatured alcohol (shellac
> thinner) should remove all traces of residue/finish/polish, etc.
> You'll need a wood bleach (oxalic acid) to remove dark watermarks.
> Household bleach will not work as well, if at all.

Please note that this author also refers to denatured alcohol as
shellac thinner.

Jan Kijlstra