Bysakhi Dark Button — 2026 Crop Reservation

Genuine dark Bysakhi button lac from the Manbhum region — the crop that rarely reaches the market. The 2026 run is confirmed and in production now: real Bysakhi sticklac from the Manbhum crop, bought and processed for us, then hand-made into buttons at a small producer's works. You are reserving your share before it lands.

Much of the button lac on the market is cut to lower cost, and most of what is sold as "Bysakhi" is not from the true crop — different harvests, regions, and trees. Ours is the real thing, the same Bysakhi the old books refer to.

Most commercial shellac sold today is dewaxed flake — a 20th-century industrial product. Button lac is the older form, the one classical finishing texts describe. The wax is part of the structure, not an impurity to be removed. The buttons are produced by hand in small operations, weighed and packed one bag at a time.

Bysakhi is a named crop, not a color spec. Dark Bysakhi carries the depth of that harvest — a shellac that adds color as it builds, for antique restoration, walnut and dark hardwoods, and work where the depth is part of the point. Because it is a genuine crop rather than a blended grade, the yield is finite, and this is very likely the last chance at it before next summer. That is why we reserve it rather than stock it.

How the reservation works

You are reserving your share of one confirmed crop batch, shipped in a single lot when it lands.

• Reserve now, paid in full. Payment is taken at reservation; reserving is what holds your allocation.
• The batch is finite. The allocation is capped and we do not oversell it. When the reservation fills, it closes.
• Price locked at today's number.
• If the crop comes in short: the unfilled portion of your reservation is refunded in full, automatically — you don't have to ask.
• Change your mind? Full refund anytime before the batch ships. Just email support@shellac.net.
• Expected to ship August 2026. We email every reservation holder when the batch lands.
• Ordering in-stock items too? Those ship right away — your reservation follows separately when the crop lands.

A small amount of our current dark Bysakhi button stock is still on the shelf here — this reservation is for the new 2026 crop run.

Sourced direct from a fifth-generation refining family in India who has supplied this bench since 1990. Pure, uncut, genuine.