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13 November 2016 at 2:05 am #142384
Glad to hear it. Would love to see pics if you get to a point you want to share.
Good luck.
12 November 2016 at 7:03 pm #142380I tried French polishing a few times – bought flakes and special belkol solvent and wool and pumice and rotten stone and cheesecloth, etc… every material I saw referenced in articles and videos on the subject. I just could not get a good result.
I met someone who used to do lots of French polishing and he said it’s a very slow and tedious process. I was likely too impatient.
I hope to try again some time and I’d REALLY love to see Paul do a video about the technique. I know he had a general shellac finish video, but a dedicated French polish video would be great. Maybe we can start a petition 🙂
20 July 2016 at 10:54 am #138641Thanks for the tip Matt – I’ll try some mineral spirits the next time I have the heart to go look at that project again. heh.
David – I’ve heard/read so many different descriptions of the French Polish technique that I’m thoroughly confused. I would very much like to hear what Paul has to say on the topic. A professional woodworker I met a few years ago said he used to do a lot of French Polish work and I *think* he said the early steps involved using a rubbing pad with a little shellac on it with some abrasive powders to do the pore filling. The powder sands the wood, creates some dust, combines with the shellac and fills in the pores. My attempt the other day was to rub the finished surface with shellac (thinned with extra alcohol) in an effort to partially sand and dissolve the existing shellac to get it to fill in the divots in the finish. I did use a little abrasive powder but may have forgot to mention it. I figured this technique was not standard but sometimes it’s fun to try something random. Thanks for the book reference, i’ll probably pick that up.
19 July 2016 at 12:33 pm #138600This past weekend I gathered all my French Polishing supplies together to try using some of the abrasive powders to rub out the shellac finish I had applied to some small speaker cabinets. Having everything arranged on the benchtop, I almost started to feel like I knew what I was doing 🙂 I tried French Polishing a few times in the past, so I had bought everything I thought I would need
You all may gasp to hear that the cabinets are MDF, but that is the preferred material for speakers. The veneer is Bubinga. It had a good number of coats of shellac brushed onto it (not a French Polish application). The finish was fairly thick (at least 5 coats) but there still seemed to be divots, seemingly along the wood grain.
My first effort was to rub with some 0000 steel wool just to see if that would be enough. It brought the high gloss down to a matte finish (I’m trying to attach a pic) but the small dents in the finish didn’t change.
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I then tried dry rubbing progressively with Medium Pumice, Fine Pumice then Rottenstone. I could feel the abrasion but didn’t see a huge difference in the finish. I sometimes wet sand with Abralon sanding pads on a random orbital sander for this task, but I often find I sand through the finish so I’m trying to get away from that approach.
In an effort to fill the divots (the pores?), I started a French polishing style process – rubbing with a wool wad wrapped in cotton, mostly with shellac at first, then just some alcohol near the end. I used a drop or two of mineral oil for lubrication. I believe the first step in French Polishing (before shellac coats are built up) is to rub with the abrasive powders to slightly sand the surface and fill all the pores with dust and a little shellac – my approach here was completely backwards since I was only rubbing on the thick shellac finish itself in hopes the finish would desolve enough to flow into the holes. I got a reasonable looking finish with some improvement to the dent filling and a fairly high gloss. As a last step, I rubbed on some minwax paste wax. 30 seconds later, I went to buff it off. But it wouldn’t come off. It completely destroyed the hour+ finish job I had just done. I was so angry that I didn’t even take a picture.
I’m still not sure what the problem is. Two hypotheses : either the finish wasn’t dry from rubbing with shellac / alcohol + a tiny bit of oil. OR the atmosphere was too ‘gross’. It has been ~90degs with ~80% humidity here in the Northeastern US the past week or so.
I went so far as to get out a power buffer to try to remove the wax – it helped slightly but fibers from the buffing pad got embedded in the waxy finish. I believe I’m going to have to sand off the entire finish and start from scratch. Absolutely heartbreaking. Thankfully the project is tiny.
(I’m having problems attaching and labeling pics – there should be one of my supplies and one of the 2 cabinets, 1 before and 1 after rubbing with steel wool only).
- This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by lowpolyjoe.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by lowpolyjoe.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.13 July 2016 at 12:30 pm #138486I’ve used that Minwax over shellac many times. Usually apply with a cotton rag, then rub out with steel wool. I’ve experimented with running an electric buffer over the final surface, but I often do more harm than good. Lately I’ve just been relying on the steel wool by hand. I’ve never noticed fibers stuck in the finish but maybe I’m just not that observant. heh.
I bought some pumice and rottenstone a while back when attempting a French polish but never thought about using it for a final buff of a regular shellac finish – I will give that a try.
Would be nice if Paul did a French polish demo video. I’ve watched many such videos and while it looks simple (but time consuming), I have not been able to reproduce reasonable results myself. Paul is an excellent teacher and I would love to hear what he has to say on the topic.
13 July 2016 at 12:20 pm #138481Thanks for the brush link David, I’ve been considering tracking one of those down but been too lazy to poke around.
29 March 2016 at 12:24 pm #136078I bought a set of waterstones a few years ago. 4 grits. I did most of my sharpening freehand on those stones for a while but wasn’t getting things as sharp as I would like. Then I bought a honing guide in hopes of getting a better edge. I found the guide frustrating and tedious to use so I barely used it. Recently I decided I’d rather spend more time building than sharpening, so I bought a Worksharp3000 power sharpener. Very costly, but now I can sharpen all my chisels to a very good edge in pretty short order instead spending of all afternoon. Some people enjoy the sharpening process but I just want to get it done 🙂
Curious to hear from others.
26 March 2016 at 11:55 am #135960That’s great, Congrats. I’m not too far from that area – here in Northern NJ 🙂
I don’t have people skills either, so I can relate to that sort of awkwardness. Heh
Good luck.
24 March 2016 at 12:54 pm #135921My first attempt at making a dowel. Wish I had (or made)a dowel cutter… these didn’t come out exactly round. Close enough though.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.7 March 2016 at 12:19 pm #135414Great collection. I love the idea but I’m too impatient to spend time on joints that aren’t going towards a specific project 🙂
I’ve only tried dovetails a few times. The first effort was a complete mess but I still have the box I built holding some chisels. Every time I look at it, it reminds me to be more careful with my work. heh.
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