Thread: French Polishing versus fine sanding shellac? which is glossier?

I am a bit of a mug trying French polishing at the moment on some Sydney blue gum cabinets.

While I can NOT profess to be an expert, with each piece I feel I am getting better.

Here is a recent image



As for comparison, I don't think I can provide one, but I do like the results of the French polishing a lot. Very warm pleasant finish.

To me, one of the keys is surface prep. If you don't remove every single blemish, they will stand out like dogs proverbials on a mouse.

My early pieces were sanded, but machining marks that I couldn't see still became evident once the polish layered up.

My later pieces were hit with a smoothing plane, in some cases a cabinet scraper, then grain filled, sanding sealer, rubbed back with 600 wet and dry, then polished, then EEE.

Now this is just my understanding(best guess) is french polishing can bring out Shellac to a mirror finish. I am not sure on what results can be achieved with fine sanding Shellac.

If you put enough layers on can you cut and polish it with the stuff used on cars? Will the Shellac be hard enough to be cut and polished?

Sorry its taken so long to update this thread, school's been nuts for the last few weeks.
Anyway, i did another little sample piece today, sanding back 5 quickly brushed on coats of blonde shellac, up to 12,000 grit. The results aren't too bad, but i definitely needed a much thicker layer of shellac to start with, as i fairly quickly managed to sand through it in a few patches like an idiot while i was leveling the surface.

I've also ordered some more abrasives up to 100,000 grit, so once those get here i'll give them a shot to see how much better they can get things looking. The only real issue i'm having with the 12,000 grit is that its leaving me with a very fine haze of scratches, so i'm hoping taking it further up through the next levels of abrasives will help to reduce those to give me a perfect finish.

I've not really seen a really perfect french polish in person to know how high the gloss is or how clear and haze free the finish looks, so at the moment i'm basing my benchmarks on internet pictures and a bit of imagination/am building up my expectations to the point of the impossible.

Here's my test piece sanded to 12,000 grit. In the second photo you can see the dull spots...evidence of botched sanding results from going through my finish
The last two shots show both the really dull crappy areas (mainly at the top to about halfway down) where i sanded through the finish, as well as the slight haziness i was talking about in the spots were the finish remains.

SAM_2289.jpgSAM_2292.jpgSAM_2310.jpgSAM_2298.jpgSAM_2305.jpg

Have you tried EEE ultrashine ? It contains fine abrasive and removes the "plastic" shine.

I reiterate ... I ain't no expert.

You may have missed the purpose of French Polish. The real purpose of French polish is to show the beauty of the depth of figure in the timber with a really transparent finish that "looks into" the timber. A super high gloss is the opposite of that. If you can see yourself reflected rather than the timber then you have failed IMHO. That is a plastic finish. Buy isothane or polyurethane and be done.


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Originally Posted by Xanthorrhoeas

You may have missed the purpose of French Polish. The real purpose of French polish is to show the beauty of the depth of figure in the timber with a really transparent finish that "looks into" the timber. A super high gloss is the opposite of that. If you can see yourself reflected rather than the timber then you have failed IMHO. That is a plastic finish. Buy isothane or polyurethane and be done.


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I believe i have missed the purpose of it then...if only because i can't see any difference between abrading shellac to a high gloss versus doing a true french polish?
Both bring shellac up to a high gloss? Both create a fairly thin finish that highlights the wood beneath, and both, as far as i've seen allow you to more or less see yourself in the finish?

Regardless of whether i have truly failed or not, i'll persist with trying to get as glassy a finish with shellac as possible, simply because its the aesthetic i'm fond of, and after a decade or so of wear and use, dare i say it'll tone down quite a bit anyway.