as posted in other forum I have an antique mahogany french polished dining table that a rat died on while on holiday ( me not the rat ). upon return I found it had rotted and left a dark stain and blistered the french polish. Restoration advise please. wife will love you more than she currently loves me as I left the rat bait!

And the prize for the oddest way to damage a finish goes to...

How much do you know about woodfinishing in general? French polishing an antique table will take a wee bit of skill and it's a reasonably labour intensive process.

That said, shellac (French polish) is quite forgiving and easy to fix if you make a mistake. I've just used it for the first time restoring a chest of drawers, and had no problem getting a very passable french polished surface without really trying. So it's not impossible for a beginner. Others with more experience will no doubt chime in shortly and provide some guidance.

The good news is that in all probability you won't have to strip and redo the whole top

Hi Ray,
Have you got any pictures of the damage, and an over all picture of the type of mahogany table , that you could put up ?
You have a better chance of a reply that way,
Does the table have its original finish?
Or has it been restored at some stage in the past ?
And like NZStu said, have you any polishing experience?

If you have a table with an original patina of years of use that has a nice shine ,you could have a chance of touching it up.

If it has been restored with a high shine,You would have to sort the dark stain out. possibly bleach ,then touch it up with colour,level up the thickness of the shellac , and re finish to match.
It takes between five to ten years of learning how, to start to become good at that.


It may be an easy fix though Ray cant tell without seeing it though.

Rob.