Well, I’ve been struggling with my first FP attempt for the last 2 weeks and I think at 6 sessions I have gotten a good film thickness going.  Maybe another 2 sessions and I’ll put it aside for a week or two to harden and then level and glaze.  I’ve been stiffing off between sessions as recommended by MichaelP and the surface looks fairly good as is – just a few dust specks here and there. 

What grit sandpaper do you guys normally use for leveling?

Thanks for the comments guys.

JJ – yeah the wrist and elbow certainly develop a nice warm burn after an hour or so of pushing the shellac around.  The only problem I had was faint surface lines in the direction of my primary polishing stroke (head to heal per Robbie’s finishing video <thanks again Robbie for a great finishing dvd!!>) which was probably due to loading the muneca on the heavy side.  I switched to ovals with a more lightly loaded pad (10 to 12 drops of 2lb cut with 2 drops of alcohol) after session three and the surface soon flattened out and the lines disappeared.  I divided the top and back in quarters and loaded the muneca twice per quarter per session.  I also switched my muneca cover to a piece of very smooth, tightly woven thin cotton cloth from a worn out dress shirt after the initial loading sessions. The smooth tight weave seemed to help polish the surface and I always increased my stroke speed after the pad began to drag and polished for a minute or so more after the pad seemed dry which seemed to polish out any swirl marks and left a very flat surface.  I also gradually changed the axis of my oval strokes (figure 8’s were uncomfortable for me) during a session from initial slower circular strokes along the perimeter and shorter strokes across the bout axis to faster longer strokes closer to the head/heal axis.  I think this continual shift in the polishing stroke direction also helped to flatten the initial session strokes and  left a smoother surface.  And as mentioned before I followed Michael’s very good advice and spririted off between sessions.  Anyway, this is very novice advise for sure but it seemed to work for me.

Steve – yes I’m hoping to attend the Chicago gathering on the 17^th and am trying to get this guitar  finished so that I can bring it along.

Michael – the b&s wood is a spalted Myrtle set from Bob.  It has a tight grain which didn’t require any filling work prior to the fp’ing.