Limited working time with shellac question

[MattP]

Drop or two on the rag will lubricate things well enough to make a slick surface rather than a stick surface.  I like Grapeseed oil because it's nearly colorless, though olive oil will also do nicely.  Neither polymerizes, so wiping with flannel after the top shellac is dry is sometimes necessary.

Yeah, that's how I do it when I'm french polishing--the whole rolled up material inside a cloth charged with alcohol, shellac and oil routine. When I'm just wiping on shellac, I just flick some mineral oil right on the work surface. Both methods work fine for me; what I haven't tried is mixing methods, say, by french polishing but flicking the oil right on the surface.

On my last french polishing effort, I switched from olive oil to mineral oil and saw improved results. I suspect that (as is pretty common in the olive oil industry these days) my olive oil was not pure olive oil, but had been adulterated with some other type of vegetable oil. I'll probably stick with mineral oil from here on out; cheap and effective is a winning combination, imo.