Do you do this for all your pens or just the oily ones?
Also, what form of shellac do you use as there's literally hundreds in many incarnations or forms!
Cheers PHIL
Well Ed...yes, 1 coat of shellac will dry and stick on ebony.
Phil...no I don't do that on any pen.
I use acrylic on most of my pens, but acrylic and shellac have a similar property. They do not rely on solvents in order to bond. If you use any solvent based finish, the solvents will mix with the oils and thus not dissolve properly. I dont know so much how shellac works, but with an acyrilic urethane...ie Enduro, the plastic is floating in water, the water simply evaportates, as that happens, the plastic paritcles float together and when they touch, they chemically unite into a single unit, thus the oil has little effect, although the oil can cause the adhesion to the surface to not be as durable. Shellac...you can put shellac on a table after you just polish it with furniture polish. It will stick and stick quite well to that waxy stuff. I would not finish a pen with shellac. Just a coat to deal with the oil, then switch to something else, like a polyurethane, CA, laquer. And finally..no matter what you use, you should wipe that wood down with some de-natured alcohal before you do anything. Even though there's things that will stick to the oily surface, they will stick better if the oil is removed. Better it sticks, the longer it lasts.