French Polishing - Attempt #2

[homey]

wP,

Difficult to tell from your pics but that whitish blush at one end may be moisture. This can happen even as a result of humidity, i.e. no contaminants in the polish. It's well-documented (here's just one link: Controlling Shellac Blush)
so you should be able to find it easily with a DDG search. I have a humidity meter in the workshop; if I need to FP when it's really humid I run a dehumidifier for an hour beforehand.

As Swifty has mentioned, the oil should not be a problem if you use a little. On boxes I put literally one drop of oil on my finger tip then brush it across the rubber. The oil gets removed at the spiriting off stage.

Swifty also mentions the sinking of shellac. I can testify to this. I first came across it FPing in Andrew Crawford's workshop. Has a beautiful finish down then he warned me it would sink overnight. It most certainly did, but further polishing fixed the issue.

Best regards,

Brian

[woodPixel]

OK, I found my problem - I'm actually burning through in places

Too much meths.

[surfdabbler]

Just came across this thread. I'm glad I've inspired to you work on this. Keep it up. I think you have the right idea to work and practice on a test piece. I'll have to try the AquaCoat, or some other proper grain filling next time I do it. My surface had been previously polished, so some shellac was probably left in the surface, helping to fill the grain. I don't know how you do it without oil. When I get rid of the oil, that's when everything stops working. Anyway, I'm looking forward to my next FP job. It's certainly addictive.

[woodPixel]

It is addictive.

I fear that swmbo was a tad peeved at me with the myriad of bottles and accoutrements accumulated....it now lives in a box 😃😃

I'm yet to order some pumice.

My problem so far has been over polishing and burning through the work at the polishing stage. I think my mouse is a bit too scruffy.

The build stage happens quickly enough. I also need to work on the filling stage...and use more test pieces, not just one or two.

Perhaps I need 10 samples on the go all the time 😀😀

[surfdabbler]

My problem so far has been over polishing and burning through the work at the polishing stage. I think my mouse is a bit too scruffy.

Yes, that's where I have the most problems. As soon as the oil is gone, I can't do much without burning through. Put some oil back on, and then I find it much easier to work. I'm leaving the oil on, just a super fine film, and then the final polish with scratch-X with a bit of oil mixed in. Once it's polished, the final buff removes the polish and any remaining oil. That worked well for me in the end.

I also found the switch to high quality cotton sheet was better than tshirt material. The t-shirt seems to load up with more polish for higher build at the early stages, but was really grabbing at the final polishing stages, where the cotton sheet glides on the surface better, with less pressure. Still have to be careful not to burn through though.