Thread: How shiny should a french polish be?

If you could ask my deceased grandfather as a french polisher and cabinet maker from the 1920's, he'd tell you "like glass". He specialised in pianos and pianolas and I've seen a lot of his work. Many of his jobs would involve hundreds of hours of work to get that perfect finish. If you ask me then I'd say it's whatever you're happy with. Some people like the glass look and some like to deglaze the sheen for a satin look. It's really up to personal taste.

A high gloss finish is not always practical on heavy use furniture but is ideal on ornamental type projects. I use all types of finishes depending on the job and how I feel. I guess a true french polish is glassy by definition but there's no laws governing the use of shellac AFAIK. Fashion also seems to play a part in opinion too. Sometimes glossy is fashionable and sometimes not.

Steve

I was taught by an old master restorer and he insisted that it had to be as smooth as glass with a deep internal shine which could be a full gloss or deglazed for a satin finish or a smokey finish depending on the type and needs of the owner.

If you want it different then that I would use a different material for french polishing is a lot of work.

Peter.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

I was taught by an old master restorer and he insisted that it had to be as smooth as glass with a deep internal shine which could be a full gloss or deglazed for a satin finish or a smokey finish depending on the type and needs of the owner.

If you want it different then that I would use a different material for french polishing is a lot of work.

Peter.

I don't really want anything different, my thoughts are along the same lines as that of the restorer - ultra smooth, deep shine, and high gloss...i asking more so out of general curiosity than anything else.
I've noticed a few threads on here and some other forums in the past where people have been a tad critical of high gloss french polished finishes, so i was just wondering whether there was a true 'right way', or whether it was just people being critical of an aesthetic they weren't too fond of.

The way I was taught, French Polish refers to either the varnish itself (ie. dissolved shellac) or the high gloss finish that can be achieved with it.

If it's not a mirror gloss finish, it's just 'varnished.'

My understanding is french polish is when it gives a reflective finish almost like glass or should say glass finish. I have yet to try this.

In my experience the level of shine required depends on the item being polished. I often work to repair Australian antiques and, for those, especially when matching an old finish, one does not want too high a shine. Items from the 1800 to 1850's do not seem to have been grain filled so the polish level still has open pores showing. Later, certainly by the 1870's, they often used dyed whiting as a grain filler and worked to a much higher level of shine. Those pieces often look speckled today as the dyes used for the whiting were fugitive and the filled pores now appear lighter than the surrounding timber. French polished Huon Pine goes a lovely crackled and crinkly dark orange colour because of the natural oil in the Huon Pine, which reacts with the shellac, so if one is matching that finish or making something to suit it would definitely not be super shiny. On the other hand, Blackwood readily takes a high shine and as a hard timber often keeps that shine well for many years, though with time it also mellows to what I think of as a lovely old finish with patina.

So, when I French Polish I often apply many very fine layers of shellac with a rubber then, when it is quite dry and hardened I cut the surface with 0000 steel wool and use a Carnauba wax to give a soft sheen.

I have always known the super shiny finishes as "Piano Finish" rather than as French Polish, and have understood that the really high gloss was often not shellac but a lacquer of some kind.

Though it wasn't done with french polishing, i thought i'd share the latest job i've done using shellac

Its an antique Japanese shrine that i was asked to fix up. When it came to me it was in pieces, with a huge crack through the top and one door, all of the figures were broken and separate from the base. Along with that most of the metalwork was missing and all of the lacquer on the top and the doors was flaking and peeling.
....

Here's how it is now...

Its mostly done using micromesh followed up with very slightly damp tissues and a huge amount of buffing and polishing to more or less pull the micromesh debris out of the surface.

IMG_0577.jpgIMG_0580.jpgIMG_0581.jpg

Congratulations, that is a great job. I am not familiar with the technique and only restore Australian furniture primarily for my own use so may never need to produce such a shine but it is good to see that it can be achieved. You must be very patient to put all those figures back together.