How To Work With French Polishing Finishing All On Your Own
In applying the french polishing finish, first thing you have to do is to create the pad. You’ll need wool and a new fabric cover for the pad. Shape the wool round then place enough amount of shellac in it. Then make it as the core of the cotton fabric cover. Wrap the cotton fabric around the wool by twisting the four corners of the cloth at one end.Then by making a ball like shape on the other end. Then put a little natural oil into the cotton fabric cover. After that you are ready for coating the wood piece with thin layers of shellac. You can apply a couple of these thin layers in one session. If you wish to reload the pad with shellac, simply remove the wool core and put shellac into it. Then again cover it with the cotton fabric pad.Repeat the process 6 to 8 times to complete the step. Then allow it to dry. When you’re done, keep the pad in an airtight container so it will not dry and so you could still use it in the next application.
In this step in the process of french polishing, after the piece has dried, you need to remove the wool core and put a little amount of alcohol and apply the spiriting process unto the surface, with a similar pattern to the previous steps. This is to take away the oil that has ascended to the surface of the wood. It should be removed before applying the next step which is glazing. Repeat the process until the desire finish is achieved.
The next process in creating a french polish , is checking for the flaws and blemishes under a bright light. If there are any spots and flaws, you could use 1200-grit sandpaper with a small amount of oil. Remove the sawdust with alcohol then continue polishing and spiriting as needed to eliminate the blemishes and level out the surface of the woodwork.
After those, your work should be almost finished. The last remaining step to do is the glazing process.
This process is to add gleam and luster to your work. This step will require a 1lb mixture of shellac. Apply the coat with a thin layer to retouch the almost invisible blemished and spotted exterior caused by the previous process. Make sure to apply a similar coating pattern like the previous steps. Then examine the corners and edges which are over looked. Then do this process as many times as a possible to achieve the desired product. That’s D.I.Y. french polishing– now, isn’t that easy?