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My hat is off to Robbie O'Brien ... and Orville & Robert Milburn too. I had the day off today (paid holiday) and finally had the opportunity to sit down and make my first attempt at French Polishing.

I had successfully bid on and won Robbie's great Finishing DVD here on the forum about 8 months ago when he so nicely donated it for one of our auctions. Since that time I've been meaning to try to learn to French Polish and the Yellow Cedar flamenco that I'm currently working on finally got to the finishing stage and I gave it a try. Robbie's instructions were clear, concise and extremely easy to follow. I went to the Milburn website and read thru their very comprehensive primer on FP also.

Here are a few photos after my second 'body session' building up the shellac. My prep work was done with a well sharpened cabinet scraper followed by two sessions of thinned Z-Poxy and then sanded with 220 & 400. I've tried to show just how good the gloss level is even at this early stage.





I was really surprised at how quickly the gloss built up even after a relatively few coats/application of the muneca.

I've got at least two more body sessions and will follow those with spiriting, glazing and hand polishing (Meguire's). I'm more than satisfied with the gloss level and I'm sure that I can even get it looking much better than it already is. The nice part about FP is that is is so easy to repair.

I build slowly and don't mind the time it takes to polish. It's very satisfying to get it right the first time.... THANKS ROBBIE !

Pete

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Peter

Impressive, Peter! It looks like you're getting a smooth and even application at the neck/body junction. How are you approaching that area?

Nice Work
I want to learn FP myself and I have the DVD.
Explain how you did your pore filling.
How did you dilute the Zpoxy etc
Describe in simple terms since I know nothing about finish

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Very nice Peter!

I've only done FP finishes to date (OK, I'm not mentioning that KTM disaster on the first F5!) - to me it is one of the most satisfying of all the processes of building.

BTW, I REALLY like the way the center strip continues up in to the heel - VERY cool! How'd you do that? Is that pretty standard on classical boxes?

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

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Pete,
That is a beautiful start buddy. I have never french polished anything. I really like the way it looks on your guitar. The guitar is beautiful as well by the way. Post some pics when you are all the way done. I want to see it.
Homeboy

Looks great!

Mike

Nice looking!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Thanks to all for your kind comments.

[QUOTE=CarltonM] It looks like you're getting a smooth and even application at the neck/body junction. How are you approaching that area?[/QUOTE] It seems to be blending well at the junction Carlton. I really tried to get the pore filling nice and smooth in the corner where the neck meets the sides and perhaps it's making the FP go that much easier.

Andy wrote:   I want to learn FP myself and I have the DVD.
Explain how you did your pore filling.
How did you dilute the Zpoxy..

Andy, after mixing equal amounts of the Z-poxy resin & hardener I then diluted it with denatured alcohol. I mixed an ounce of Z-poxy and then added about 1/4 oz. of the alcohol mixing it well. You can then spread it with a razor blade or brush it on first and then level it with the razor; moving slowly and spreading it across the entire surface and wiping off the excess as you leave the edge. Let it dry overnight and then level sand it. The remaining low spots and voids will show up as soon as you begin to level sand. Apply the Z-poxy a second time with a bit more dilution and sand again. Not only does it do a good job on the body, it really fills the pores in the neck. The neck on this guitar is Spanish Cedar and really needed it. Hopefully it will be as smooth as a baby's bottom by this time...

Mark: The continuance of the center strip up into the heel is not a standard classical technique but it is applied quite often if you look at a sampling. I put the strip of Purpleheart between the halves of the back when I joined them and then just left a rectangular tab of the back overlapping the heel until the back was glued in place. Then, when I trimmed the back to the perimeter outline of the guitar I also trimmed it to the heel contour.

PetePeter J39035.3109027778

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Peter

Great job Peter, it looks great! i'll have to give FP another try one day!

Great looking guitar Peter, the FP is coming along sweet and the Yellow Cedar is so completly right, I really do like it. Well Done.

Cheers

Kim

Thanks Peter! I am glad you like the DVD and are finding it useful.
I actually taught a course on Fench Polish this past weekend and the students were amazed that I could FP a back of a guitar to a gloss in 30 to 45 minutes! After finishing I found a hairline fracture along the back and immediately took a razor blade to the back and destroyed the finish all the way back to the wood so I could repair the crack. As I did this you could hear gasps of horror that I would do such a thing. In a half hour the repair was made and the back was returned to a high gloss. Talk about a very forgiving finish!

Great job! Classy guitar, too.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier
Web: https://www.jfrenchguitars.com/

Hi Peter,
I'm Walter...This guitar looks like a cypress body. Can I assume a light weight flamenco guitar?
Looks beautiful.
Many years ago I had one. It was paper thin.
with ebony fingerboard.
What a nice guitar.
Nice job.

walter WalterK39035.4898611111

Robbie
I was considering doing a similar test to develop skills.
I was going to FP a board. Make some scratches and then try to repair them.

If you have some dings and scratchs what is the best approach to tackling it?
Sand down to wood? start over ?
How would you handle an area with a few scratches?
You DVD is in my laptop as we speak!!!!azimmer139035.5534953704

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Bravo

[QUOTE=azimmer1] Robbie
I was considering doing a similar test to develop skills.
I was going to FP a board. Make some scratches and then try to repair them.

If you have some dings and scratchs what is the best approach to tackling it?
Sand down to wood? start over ?
How would you handle an area with a few scratches?
You DVD is in my laptop as we speak!!!![/QUOTE]

Andy,
It depends on whether the scratch is in the finish or in the wood or both. If you have an area that has a crack in the wood then I like to remove the finish to the wood and repair the crack then repair the finish. If you have a ding in the wood then same thing. If you have finger nail or pick marks around the soundhole for example that dented the wood you can remove the finish and steam the dented areas then refinish. Or you could level the dented areas and refinish over the top. I use CA glue to level the dents then sand then refinish.
If you have a scratch in the finish, perhaps while polishing you catch a nail and scratch the finish, you can sand the finish starting at a high grit such as 1000 and progressively back down using 800, 600 etc until the scratch is removed. Then simply refinish.
French Polish is very forgiving so don't be afraid to sand the finish or even remove it to bear wood and then refinish it.
Good luck.     

Way to go Peter. I've got to try that. Good job!
Doug

That is a fantastic looking guitar Peter! Very well done.

I too FP'd my first two and I love it. Very rewarding and extremelly forgiving...

Keep up the great work.

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Very nice!       

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin