Official Luthiers Forum!

People keep asking about supplies for French polishing. A brief tour of the web found the following sites. I've not used any of these sites myself so don't take this as a recommendation. But, the web can be your friend and $7 for a yard of 100% linen is not very expensive. Even the Everclear is pretty reasonable considering how little you use when french polishing. The wool roving sound expensive but $10 worth will last for years.

Grain Alcohol

Wool

Linen

Shellac

Very cool Mike. Thanks for putting this together.

I'm bookmarking each of these for future reference.

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

If you have a Woodcraft nearby, they carry Hock brand shellac which is also very good.

Everclear is 25% cheaper 1/2 mile down the street. (Us Delawareans are lucky that way).

Old wool socks are good.

The linen reference could be useful. I've been astonished by how little our local fabric store people know about fabrics anymore. (I got a complete blank look when I asked about bias tape to use for side reinforcements.)

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I have bought linen from the Fabric Store and was pleased with what was shipped and their service.   Keep in mind that I was making clothing not polishing. I will say this though, the linen comes in different weaves and weights that aren't always apparent in the pictures. They will send you samples that are about 1" x 1", up to five at a time. And remember, they do sell blended fibers. Keep an eye on their doggy bag specials.

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Aoibeann

Good post Mike. I've used Lemon Yellow dewaxed from shellac.net before and realy liked it. We meet at A.S.I.A. this year. I'm the grumpy old "Red Neck" from Kansas. I didn't know you were a Freanch Polisher also. That's all Iv'e ever done.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

and now the rest of the post........

I didn't think there were any FP guitars at A.S.I.A. Were there? If there were I need to work on my technique

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

I saw a couple of french polished instruments there but none of them had the extra pizazz that marks a really great french polish finish. I've only seen a few guitars finish with french polish that truly took my breath away. One was by Serge De Jonge and the other was by Aaron Green. On both of these guitar there wasn't any tell tail sign of how it was applied. There were no ridges, the color was perfectly uniform and the edges and corners were every bit as rich and shiny as the rest. It is the level to which I aspire.

You and me both Mike. I'm sure the only way to get a great finish is to keep after it. I've only done 5 FP finishes and was happy with every part except they were not very shiny, so that’s were I need to concentrate. By the way I’ve been told it’s not really a French Polish finish it’s a French Polish surrender.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

[QUOTE=Dave Rickard]I've only done 5 FP finishes and was happy with every part except they were not very shiny, so that’s were I need to concentrate. [/QUOTE]
I was in a 'class' at Sergei's place recently.
The FP work they do in his shop is truly awesome.
Sergei deJonge uses Novus#2 polishing compound (or Autoglym O2B-apparently no longer available) to bring up the final shine on the FP. Buffs by hand or with a small car buffer. He also uses Micromesh 3200 if there are any small ridges, etc that need attention.
BTW, he's now using a resin-modified shellac mix for FP, which is more like 'Spirit Varnish' from the violin world.
Cheers
John

Thanks John. I’ve been using McGuire’s #7 show car polish. I have a car buffer but haven’t tried it yet. I suspect the material the buffing pad is made out of will make a big difference also. Do you know what he was using?

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Dave-
No help, I'm afraid:
I didn't see Sergei using a power buffer- we were just using old, well-washed terrycloth towel rags and 'elbow grease', and I gather that's the common practice around his shop.

Cheers
John