Questions about french polishing [from beginner]
I started my first french polish try on a piece of pine and results don't look that good. (Before polishing I sanded up to 400, than applied commercial sanding sealer that also fills the grain, than sanded up to 1200, than stained and finally lightly sanded a bit more.) After the first polishing session I got a small area (about 1'') where polish layer seems to be like washed out. I thought that this may be because of problems with grain filling and this would be fixed after the next polishing session but today I continued with polishing and got such washed out arey in another place while the first one was still there. My guess that I may use too much or not enough metho or polish. The problem is being a beginner I can't tell what will happen if wrong amount of ingredients is used. So here is a list of almost all possible combinations. Can somebody who is familiar with french polishing answer these questions?
How do I know if I use:
1. Too much polish
2. Too much metho
3. Too much oil
4. Too much metho and polish
5. Not enough polish
6. Not enough metho
7. Not enough oil
8. Not enough metho and polish
french pliishing for Pavel
hi Pavel...i did my first attempt of french polishing the other week and it looked beautiful...i totaly suprised myself, so here is what i did , it may be
unorthodox but it worked...I use recycled Oregon , and aim for a mid antique brown colour, use the old timber if you can or at least anything but pine , it is such crap and never looks any good...
first I gave a coat of black Japan , brushed on wiped off, then a day later give it a light rub back with 0000 steal wool,and a wipe coat of French polish (buy stuff made already like from feast Watson, to you learn more) then when that's dry another coat of Japan , but this time thin some out slightly with turps and brush it on evenly (don't wipe off) to get a nice even colour. leave it for a couple of days and then give it a light rub with the 0000 steal wool, and then start French polishing, first I gave a wipe on coat ,as that's drying I prepare a pad with a dash of metho to just dampen the pad and work it in with your hand, dab a bit of the polish on and away you go, round and round, if the pad sticks even slightly add a few drops of metho, and keep going reweting the pad with polish...I ended up with a beautiful shine and a rich traditional antique looking piece of furniture that did not look 'coloured up'...it sounds like a lot of work but once you do it a few time it's easy...contact me if you have any problems...