Having fun yet Doug
If properly read Milbun's say you..CAN..cut the 2 lb cut of shellac by doubleling the ratio of alcohol to shellac you add to your muneca. i.e. if during boding you were adding 10 drops of shellac and 5 drops of alcohol, you now must add an additional 10 drops of alcohol to cut the 2# cut to a 1# cut. This is personal prefrence. I prefer to make seperate cuts and label the bottels as such. Either way while glazing you use half the ratio of pure shellac to alcohol that you used in a body session
You will always have to add alcohol as you pad because the alcohol evaporates so quickly as it is exposed to air. Also the alcohol that you add to the pad just before boding is there to melt the prelaid film to accept the new shellac, not to cut the shellac in the inner pad. If you did not add alcohol to the outer pad just before padding the prelaid film would not amalglamate properly with the newly applied shellac.
For this same reason you should only mix up enough cut shellac for the project at hand. If you try to shelf the cut shellac for long periods of time the alcohol evaporats out and you no longer have consistant cuts.
the porpose of the thin cut at glazing is to compact and polish the film with out pulling off the film. The thin cut of shellac inables this process