[Gromit]

I like this bare metal look too - ever since seeing a Masi road bike with clear over bare metal in the window of a bike shop in Italy way back when... seeing that gorgeous bike left an impression but I think the maker's point was the beautiful brazing and sanding and hand-filed brazed cast lugs on that frame and not necessarily weatherproof longevity..

Anyway I just remembered that I use regular old aerosol (Bullseye brand?)shellac (natural extract from the Lac bug) which has the advantage of being soluble in regular grain alcohol. As a solvent, alcohol (I don't think) is not quite as bad as some of the other paint solvent you can be exposed to - with for example urethane or acrylic lacquer paints.

On my garden tools such as shovels I spray that shellac on the bare metal and it seems to hold up alright and prevents rust - when the clear coat needs to be renewed I just give the metal a light sanding again and put new shellac right over the old and the layers seem to melt together reasonably.

If you want to strip the shellac completely then in my experience grain alcohol will remove it; so again not as bad in my opinion as aircraft paint remover or naptha or MEK or acetone..after all if they commonly sell it (grain alcohol) for human consumption how bad can it be?