Not sure what you mean by blend-- one of the nice things about shellac is that it melts with the alcohol solvent and you can typically apply new coats over old coats without stripping, including re-consolidating alligatored finishes. To keep an older patina I've often used denatured alcohol and steel wool to soften and redistribute an old alligatored finish, then new coats on top as needed. If you are looking for a color match, that can be a little more challenging. I'd look first to the different grades of shellac as sold-- from light to dark they go blonde, orange or amber, garnet, with different providers offering a variety of choices -- google shellac grades for pictures. These will be sold as flakes that you dissolve in denatured alcohol.

If you don't like the natural colors then you can tint the dissolved shellac with alcohol soluble dyes. I like the TransTint colors, available at most woodworking supply places. You may need a red, amber, and brown to get to the tone you like.

Shellac is a beautiful finish, but not very tough for a floor or stair application.

Thanks, rwiegand! I'm having trouble with just what you described - reconsolidating the alligatored finish. I was using a rag and a green scrubbie, but I can't get the alligatoring to redistribute. I just end up getting down to bare wood. The alligatored pieces are much tougher than the rest and end up being the last hanging on.

I wiped a bit off the treads, and I've been really excited by how nice the wood looks. I've been thinking it was the wood that was so dingy, but it was really just the shellac. Very encouraging!

I was thinking of garnet shellac, just because of the references I've seen. But looking more at samples, I think button lac looks more like the rest of ours. Would this be because it's aged?

Hi,
This stuff is sold for amalgamating alligatored finishes. You do have to remove dirt and wax to allow it to work properly. And if the finish has crawled to an extreme (looks warty, not just crinkly) than you must use other means, like sanding the warts off first.
Casey

Here is a link that might be useful: Behlens Shellac/lacquer amalgamator

Casey - thank you for the recommendation! There are sections in the dining room that are definitely warty, and I'd been trying to sand them (after seeing your post a while ago about refinishing a piano by sanding first). I appreciate your willingness to share your expertise!

To get ours to look right, we removed the old finished (it had been painted), put on a gel stain, two coats of garnet shellac and then two coats of clear. There are many ways to change the color.

As for the steps, I didn't want go hide the beauty, but needed something b/c the steps were so slippery. Instead of a runner, we went with stair treads and left the risers bare. Several carpet treads had to get replaced (cat problem) and the carpet tape did not harm the underlying finish. Just a thought.

Good luck

Thanks for the idea of the treads, too! When we refinished the upstairs room, the floor was very slippery, so we knew we'd have to do something with the stairs. There hadn't been anything on the stairs prior - I don't know how they handled that.