For those who don’t know, denatured alcohol fumes, alone, can attack the optic nerve and lead to blindness. Denatured, or wood, alcohol is ethyl alcohol (moonshine) with methyl alcohol added. Denatured alcohol is commonly sold at hardware stores. Drying time of shellac is shorter with methyl, and I guess this is the trade off is you want to risk it.
Isopropyl alcohol metabolizes to acetone, a known carcinogen, in your system.
My alcohol of choice for either luthiery or bluegrass music is 420 Extractor, a marijuana-centric discount Everclear sold here in Colorado. I suppose in the case of bluegrass playing, ingestion of Everclear could also lead to another sort of blindness, but makes the whole experience worth it.
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