Eaustin,
What I have is Parks brand Clear Gloss Lacquer. I found it at my local ACE Hardware in the wood finish section. WalMart used to carry a Deft product they called ‘fast dry wood finish’ that was the same stuff. I don’t know if they still have it.
One of the big problems with something like buying a quart of lacquer for head cement is that it lasts a LONG time. I bought mine, I think, seven or eight YEARS ago. I still have well over half of it left, and I use it a lot…Only reason I bought this can is that I used the old ‘Deft’ brand one up sealing and finishing some woodwork. Brands, packaging, merchandizing, store stocks all change over time.
Clear lacquers are almost always found in with the wood finishes. Sometimes it won’t say ‘lacquer’ boldly on the lable, you may have to look closely. Often they use terms like ‘fast dry’ or ‘instant cure’ type descriptions, but you will see ‘lacquer’ someplace on the can, hopefully.
I usually find the colored lacquers where they have touch up or trim paints and usually at a ‘specific brand’ paint shop. I bought my black and red at an auto paint store (it’s closed now). They were nice enough to separate out a half pint of each for me from a larger container. Don’t know the brand on these. It wasn’t ‘cheap’, I think I paid about $4 each for them, but they have gone a LONG way (bought them around the same time as the clear stuff, stil have well over half of it).
One of the best features of plain old lacquer is that it dries so quickly. The ability to thin it significantly, and to re thin it as needed, without hurting it’s properties, is also a plus.
The big draw back for most folks is that you buy it in Quarts. That’s a lot of ‘head cement’ and it doesn’t come in a little bottle with an easy applicator built in. You have to expend some time and iniative finding a small bottle (I used an airbrush paint bottle-craft stores sell them) and made an applicator for it by pusing a large hat pin through an appropriately size cork stopper (cork stoppers are available at my ACE Hardware). I separated the colored lacquers into used Testor Enamel bottles.
Some folks worry about the fumes from the solvents. Lacquer smells. But in the small quantities we use, it’s not overpowering or dangerous. I don’t even notice the ‘smell’ when using it just for fly heads. I’d not paint a door with it in a hermetically sealed space unless I could open a window or turn on a vent fan.
Lacquers were a ‘traditional’ head cement, but they still offer advantages today. I like being able to put several coats on a head in just a few minutes. I like not having to worry if I need to move a fly whether or not the head cement isn’t dry and it will ‘stick’ to something. I like being able to thin it to differing viscosities to suit my requirements.
Add in the fact that it is very cost effective, and it’s a win-win situation.
Buddy
