Affect of shellac on a signed baseball

[Runscott]

Steve, that 'old orange' look that you see on shellacked balls is similar to what I often find on old store-bought pool cues, especially the ones that were refinished by amateurs, and most of those were seldom, if ever, exposed to sunlight;i.e-if it's similar stuff, I don't think the darkening of the shellack has much to do with sunlight. As you suggest, it might be something in the shellack (or whatever it really is) that is 'going bad' with age. My guess is that whatever the amateur cue refinishers painted onto the cues is the same stuff that people painted on their baseballs (the ones that went bad, anyway).

[steve B]

It very well could be. Shellac comes in a really wide range of color, so someone using whatever the hardware store had on hand probably got something in the reddish brown range. Pretty good for making pine shelves look like cherry form a distance.

Some of the older polyurethanes were pretty bad. I don't know much about the ones from the 50's when they were new, but the stuff I used in the 70's was horrid.

Steve B

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by steve B

It very well could be. Shellac comes in a really wide range of color, so someone using whatever the hardware store had on hand probably got something in the reddish brown range. Pretty good for making pine shelves look like cherry form a distance.

Some of the older polyurethanes were pretty bad. I don't know much about the ones from the 50's when they were new, but the stuff I used in the 70's was horrid.

Steve B

From my experience refinishing pool cues and stripping crappy refinish jobs, I'm fairly sure they started off light and then darkened, and I'm guessing the same happened with these baseballs.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by steve B

It very well could be. Shellac comes in a really wide range of color, so someone using whatever the hardware store had on hand probably got something in the reddish brown range. Pretty good for making pine shelves look like cherry form a distance.

Some of the older polyurethanes were pretty bad. I don't know much about the ones from the 50's when they were new, but the stuff I used in the 70's was horrid.

Steve B

From my experience refinishing pool cues and stripping crappy refinish jobs, I'm fairly sure they started off light and then darkened, and I'm guessing the same happened with these baseballs. No one would have intentionally refinished a maple cue forearm with reddish-brown shellac, and I'm certain they didn't come that way from Brunswick, yet many of the old Brunswick forearms have turned yellow-orange with age.

[murphusa]

It is made from bugs that nest in trees so the color and traits of the tree comes through in the process. It also has a short shelf life and if old will give a darker color

Orange was the top color in the US for years.

So many things go into what color you get