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Tubs — to side with member Jim: I have several 1930’s Johnsons (A, K, J, OK) where the floats were shellaced at the factory. About 2/3 of them have bouyant floats and I’m pretty sure they’ve never been re-treated.
The others are spongy, some slightly deformed, and sink when in fuel for more than a couple of days. It does appear some sort of fungus has got to them and has gone right through the shellac. I suspect the owners of the motors religiously drained the fuel every fall and the motors may have been kept in a damp environment with no fuel to cover the corks. My grandfather kept his (now mine) K-70 in our boathouse.
I put them in the oven at 150 for a couple of hours to evaporate the fuel (which probably kills the fungus), then coat them with Krazy Glue — for me, it doesn’t flake or crack and the floats can be put back into service immediately.