Pre-reacting the alcohol and resin" is wild. Bet that shellac was toast before it even hit the brush.

Lol "soak the jars in hot water and twist" sounds like a cooking recipe gone wrong. I tried the string trick once and ended up with a glass shard in my thumb and a jar that looked like it got into a fight with a blender. Maybe I'll just stick to buying new ones and avoid playing operation with my canning supplies.

Yeah that's rough, been there myself.