Dewaxed garnet shellac flake. Deep red-amber — the darkest dewaxed grade that still reads as a finishing shellac rather than a coloring agent. Garnet carries the deepest natural tone of the dewaxed line. Where the pale grades are pushed light with activated carbon, garnet is left to keep the lac's own color — the depth is in the material, not added to it. Decolorised with washing soda and activated carbon only — never chemically bleached. Dewaxed flake is shellac with its natural wax separated out, nothing added to take its place. It dries hard and clear, dissolves without the cloudiness waxy grades leave in solution, and sits cleanly under and over other finishes, polyurethane included. Garnet is the grade for warmth amber can't reach — the patina of older walnut, mahogany, and aged hardwoods, and restoration work that needs to match a film that's lived. Worked thin, it brings up the figure of the wood rather than covering it. Sourced direct from a fifth-generation refining family in India who has supplied this bench since 1990. Pure, uncut, genuine.
