Matte Shellac Finish?

[Keith Somerville]

I'm doing a touch up using stick shellac to fill some dings in a mahogany top. It looks good, but the original finish is matte and, try as I might, the shellac is too glossy. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Dave Richard]

Perhaps drop filling with a flat or matte shellac or lacquer? There is a product called 'Shellac Flat' an additive for shellac sold by Homestead Finishing. I have used it to spray flat sheen shellac, but have not done drop fills with it.

[Greg Mirken]

I hope you cautioned the customer that the repair would show; it's really hard to match a satin or matte sheen. I've never heard of a flattener for shellac; that would be interesting to try, but still a crap-shoot whether you match the sheen.
I have an airbrush-sized sandblast gun that I have used to knock down the sheen of a glossy repair (Micro-Mark). Never looks perfect but you can work until you are happy with the match.

[Keith Somerville]

Well, I'm handing the guitar back today. I managed to get pretty good results by rubbing some mahogany powder over the fills till I got a good overall look. Probably not a very permanent fix, but customer knows that it's never good to be perfect!