Hey Glenn and Miriam! I posted this in another thread. Canada being the nanny country that it is has banned or made it extremely difficult to get a hold of denatured alcohol.
Options at this point seem to be:
- Methyl Alcohol - this is nasty stuff for the nervous system and I planned to do this inside so it's fairly undesirable especially since I have animals who come into this room. I've also read that it can penetrate gloves and standard breathing masks rendering them useless as protection.
- Everclear 190 proof ethanol - yeah, this isn't banned in the province I live in but denatured is. Go figure! Apparently this is highly regarded by violin makers and such?
- Lee Valley's Shellac and Lacquer thinner which is a blend of Ethanol and IsoButyl Alcohols and specifically mentions french polishing on the bottle
- Isopropyl Alcohol - I'm sure that I read somewhere in one of these threads that it's not suitable for this use but a lot of the people on the Canadian Woodworking site say they use it. The main reason it's not recommended seems to be water content? I have a bottle here that's 99%
- Marine Stove or Fireplace fuel - I've read that some of these are mainly ethanol.
I'm leaning toward the Everclear or the Lee Valley product. Do either of you have any suggestions or recommendations about this?