Shellac is dissolved with alcohol---any kind. Seriously, rubbing, denatured, or vodka.

However, I have never seen or heard of a shellac finish 1/4" thick. And dissolving that much would be prohibitively expensive using alcohol. In the many hundreds of dollars.

What might be doable is finding a cabinet/countertop fabrication shop with a wide belt sander and ask how much they would charge top sand off the finish.

"We went to look at it today and it has 1/4" of shellac over the top of it which we really don't want. "

It is NOT shellac if it is 1/4 inch thick.

Do you know what it could be if not shellac? That's just what the guys at the salvage yard told me it was. We do have a furniture refinishing place nearby that I could call to see if they could take it off. But I"m sure they'll need to know what it is before being able to provide a quote.

The typical finish that thick is pour on epoxy. I've never tried to strip it, but I've heard the typical strippers won't work on it.

I'd find it hard to believe that anyone would put a 1/4" of shellac on a countertop; actually I don't even know if you could. I'd be more inclined to think epoxy. But you can try a little alcohol and see what happens.

In either case and as previously suggested, a wide belt sander would be your best choice.

A lot of people who don't know about wood finishing misuse the terminology. They say "shellac" or "lacquer" or "varnish," when all then know is that there's some clear plasticy stuff on there.

As the last couple of comments have suggested, this is almost certainly an epoxy. Removing it without damaging the bamboo is going to be a big project. Do you love this counter enough to take on a large project in order to salvage it, or are you looking for easy? This won't be easy.

If you decide to attempt removal, you might be able to soften it with a heat gun and scrape most of it away. Do this outdoors, with a fan blowing fumes away from you.

MEK will dissolve cured epoxy, but it is relatively nasty stuff.

We used warmed MEK to remove epoxy potting from electronics.

If you waited to long it would dissolve the epoxy in the printed circuit boards.

It is unlikely to be cost effective or possible in a home environment.

Thanks everyone for your responses. This sounds like a greater level of effort that what I am wanting. Guess I'll keep looking, but thank you again for all the great information.

Funny, most people try to impress me by saying "polyurethane."

> A lot of people who don't know about wood finishing misuse the terminology. They say "shellac" or "lacquer" or "varnish," when all then know is that there's some clear plasticy stuff on there.
' '
But they certainly aren't helped by all the misleading and fictitious labeling.

they certainly aren't helped by all the misleading and fictitious labeling.

Yeah, that too.