Finish with microfiber
When I was finishing my coffee table, I had all sorts of problems with the cloth I was using to apply shellac. I tried old T-shirts, socks, just about everything, but kept having problems with lint and pilling, which would show up in the finish.
I recently was wandering the aisles at Costco, with that typical look of fear, determination, and opportunity that one gets at massive consumer warehouses, when I stumbled on a five-pack of microfiber towels. Microfiber is a cloth made from tightly-woven polyester or nylon fibers. I’ve played around with it before, and it seemed like a great candidate for applying finishes–car detailers use microfiber cloths specifically because they tend not to leave behind lint. So I tried it on my humidor.
The results were excellent, with one catch. As with many things, the dye used to color the microfiber is slightly alcohol-soluble. The cloths I used were yellow, so the shellac took an a (slightly more) yellow color than before. Not a big deal for my purposes, but something to keep in mind.
Get some microfiber cloths. You’ll thank me for it.
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