Thread: advice on finish for Tas myrtle piece please

Frank, That is a beautiful piece of timber. I would try a thin shellac, sand after a couple of coats then apply more thin coats and finish with wax
Ross

+1 for a shellac finish. I have managed a pretty good sheen with some DOs on some woods, but if you want to add some real depth to that nice bit of wood, rubbed shellac ("French polishing") is hard to beat. Takes a bit of time, but well worth the effort, imo...

Cheers,

I really like blonde or dewaxed shellac as it is not as yellowing on pale timber, a number of coats then finished with a wax looks great. But if you want a high gloss I think French polishing is the go

George

Thanks for that advice Wattycoo, IanW and Gknight.
Ive used shellac in the past but not "proper" french polishing.
Seems its time to have a go at it.

Thanks again

Frank

Originally Posted by mattocks

......Ive used shellac in the past but not "proper" french polishing.
Seems its time to have a go at it.....

Frank, there's all sorts of unnecessary mystique around French polishing, but fundamentally, it's a very simple process. All you need to bear in mind is that you are applying many, many very thin coats of the material over a period of a few days (at least). Just keep that rubber moving, don't put too much on at once, and don't put subsequent coats on until the last one is well set, and you can't go wrong.

And if things do go pear-shaped, which can happen for e.g., if you try to rush things in warm, humid weather (damhik!) just wait 'til the weather improves, then give the surface a good rub down with OOOO steel wool, and start over.....

Cheers,

Thanks Ian,
good info.
gives me more confidence to have a good go.

Cheers

Frank