Dewaxed platina shellac flake. The palest grade we make — barely tinted, near water-clear in solution. This is the shellac for finishes where the wood should look untouched. A color this pale can only start from the finest, lightest Kusmi seedlac. Activated carbon can lift the tone the rest of the way, but it cannot rescue a lesser base — the clarity in platina is in the seedlac before any of it reaches the pot. That is why it sits at the top of the dewaxed range: the lightest grades take the best raw material and the most work to reach. Decolorised with washing soda and activated carbon only — never chemically bleached, so there is no residual chlorine and no shortened shelf life to manage. 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. Platina is the grade for pale woods you want to keep pale — maple, sycamore, holly — and for instruments and conservation work where the finish must not shift the color underneath it. Sourced direct from a fifth-generation refining family in India who has supplied this bench since 1990. Pure, uncut, genuine.
