I'm with John, acetone will not dissolve shellac....but the Wonko process was for all finishes and if there is no shellac shy use alcohol.
I find that:
1) alcohol is slower to boil off from wood than acetone which is much more volitile, so acetone dries faster.
2) I think that the readily available alcohol I buy has water in it and takes in water from the air in a hurry, reducing it's useful life.
3) In my experience wood soaked in acetone then alcohol swells much more and is much slower to return to it's original dimensions than with just an acetone soak. I suspect this results from water in the alcohol.
4) alcohol does not seem to help extract petroleum oils from the wood.
I've pretty much stopped using alcohol unless I working on a stock that I know was shellac'ed like my Parkers.
Jeff
