Ah finally the finish sanding is done, the pores are filled and now my favorite part. I like to brush the first couple or few coats of shellac on first to get a quick build up. Then I sand out and cat hairs and drip and brush marks and begin the French Polish. I don't weigh or measure the alcohol and shellac. It's easy enough to just get it right. I also like to use a method that I learned from Alan Carruth of using a coffee grinder to mince the stuff up and then make a cloth ball and hang it so that it barely touches the alcohol. By the next day it's ready and it even slightly dewaxes it. I don't bother to remove the rest of the wax though. I'm not really sure why it became fashionable to use dewaxed shellac unless of course you are only using shellac as a sealer for other finishes.
The pad is made from wool with a very fine cotton linen cover. I bought a box of this stuff that will probably last me a life time. The cloth was called Trace Cloth and sold for French Polishing purposes. It's good stuff. I can't remember the name of the luthier I got this from but it was in an article in the old LMI catelog. Based on that I mix pure walnut oil right into the shellac, and it's a good bit of it too, and it really makes the polishing easier and I think it's supposed to toughen up the finish too. But with the oil and probably with the wax in the shellac I never get a sticky pad.
This is a BRW OM Should be done in a few weeks.
