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I don't know if anyone noticed the ad in the last GAL, but Marshall Brune (R.E. Brune's son) is offering french polish lessions in Richard's workshop. Intrigued by an earlier article by Brune stating that he can polish a guitar in a day, I spent this Mon-Wed with them studying french polish.

It was time extraordinarily well spent. I could already FP, but had a host of issues. While I could get a very fast build, I spent endless days fixing goofs, trying to reapply, fixing more goofs, etc. And then my spiriting off technique was lacking, and I relied on power buffing to get a good gloss.

With Marshall's help I was able to get a great finish applied very, very quickly on a piece of Brazilian. It was good to go after the spiriting/glazing session, though we took it to the buffer afterwards to give an ever higher gloss. I think it was actually too glossy after that for my tastes, but it's nice to have that skill in case a client likes that glass look.

They shared their time liberally with me, and I got to inspect many famous instruments to see how different pore fills and sizing look in 50-100 years. Torres, Hernandaz, Bernabe, Fleta, Brune, etc. This is important to understand if you are undertaking a restoration, and it's nice to know what your own guitars might look like as they age.

We also covered multiple methods - filling with water based filler, pumice, and rottenstone fills, hide glue sizing and egg white sizing. Each has a different look, and of course a different amount of labor. We also did stuff like work on rough surfaces (planer chatter marks), scraped the polish with our fingernails, etc., to simulate dealing with repair issues. Heck, they even had me do some FP on a old dresser to see how you might go about doing furniture repair.

Anyway, the FP in one day (includig the pore fil) technique works, period. There's no magic to it, you can read about it in the interview with Brune in GAL, but having Marshall there watching you, and immediately correcting any misstep makes a huge difference. Also, watching him do something helps show you your own inefficiencies; when we were both doing the same thing at the same time he would advance quicker than me, and he'd give tips for speeding up the process.

Along the way we discussed sharpening scrapers, making handles for knives, routing binding channels, we took out a Hacklinger gauge to measure a guitar in his collection, violin & bow construction, artificially aging violins, and a bunch of other stuff. I learned so much.

Anyway, if you have a few days to spare, and aren't satisfied with your FP technique, or are satisfied with it but it takes you the 3-4 weeks that certain other forums seem to promote, then this class is definitely highly recommended by me.

Roger Labbe

Thanks for the info Roger. Can you tell us what the lessons cost?

Roger,

We had Richard Brune here in Texas for a LINT masterclass, half of which was devoted to french polishing. I'm sold on their techniques as well, and have shaved quite a bit of time off my polishing.

I was in Chicago a week ago, I wish I'd have found to time to head to Evanston.

I take it you saw the undocumented early Torres his son was restoring? Was it completed yet?

best wishes,
Joshua

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

It was $750 for the three nights. Which is very cheap when you consider how much time it'll save you messing around with different techniques (there's a million ways to polish, but the hard part is finding a combination that works well). Take in one or two FP jobs afterwards and it'll pay for the course.

Thanks Roger, it sounds like a class I would really enjoy. I really appreciate your review.   

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Joshua,

Yes, I saw that Torres, and 2 others. No, it was far from being done - they are going slow with it.

Thanks for posting this, Roger, I'm seriously thinking about finding a way to take this class. I'll probably wait till I get a little bit of fp experience under my belt, as I have zero experience at the moment.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Roger
How do you make contact with these folks to arrange a lesson?

John

Roger- Thank you very much for the review. I definately enjoyed teaching the class, and will be offering it again next year. I am not at my computer right now, but, there are still three more classes this year.

letseatpaste-   There is absolutely no expreience needed to take the class. I can begin at the beginning for anyone, and cater the class to the experience one might have, from being a complete beginner, someone who has mild experience, or someone who has a lot of experience.

John- You can either email me at mebrune@hotmail.com, call the workshop at (847)864-7730 or call me directly at (847)275-2983.

Thank you all for your interest.

M.E. Brune Luthier
Marshall
M.E. Brune38515.7938657407

Which Gal had the article? I don't remember seeing it and am wondering if I didn't get that issue.

GAL #79, Fall 2004.

LetSeatPaste - the idea of the class is to avoid the months or years of fumbling around trying to figure it out on your own. Take advantage of the Brune's experience, and you'll save yourself a months long learning curve.

Yeah, it sounds like that way makes the most sense, rather than fumbling around on my own. I was able to take Harry Fleishman's class last year and it didn't take long to figure out the value of real life hands-on learning in a master's shop.

Marshall has sent me some more specifics about the class and I think I'm going to try to take it. Just gotta figure out the work schedule and financial stuff.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

It's official, I'm taking Marshall's french polishing class July 11-13. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Roger, and thanks to Marshall for answering all my questions.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

I checked out the article in Gal. Not as much detail as would like and unfortunately there is no way I can take the course. Does he spirit off the oil between sessions?   From the article it almost sounds like he only does one session.

There's very little oil used. Basically you charge the inner pad, squeeze out any excess against the bottle, cover it with linen and start doing straight strokes until the pad starts to drag a bit. At this point add a _tiny_ bit of oil and switch to circular motions until the pad gets nearly dry. I put what I thought was a tiny amount of oil, and was told it was way too much. Basically in the end I was kissing a drop of oil onto the pad (so less than a drop ends up on the pad), then wiping the pad on the side of the bottle to remove some of it.

Since we were doing small pieces of wood every now and again we'd stop just for a few minutes to let it dry, but pretty much yes, it's all one long session.

Every so often between recharging the pad use some 1200 Macguier's 1200 Unigrit sandpaper with your hand to knock the high spots off. Basically you'll end up removing the gloss, not much more.

When you feel you are done, then charge the pad with alcohol only, and then spirit off. There will be residual shellac in the pad, so as you spirit off your mix will slowly change to almost pure alcohol.

Both stated several times that they've tried to make a build so thick and so fast that it got soft, etc, but it's never happened to them. All the horror stories about needing to wait 48 hours between sessions, taking weeks to get a build, waiting weeks before buffing, etc., just don't seem true, at least using their techniques and materials. I saw several of Brune's guitars, some a few decades old, and they don't evince any of the problems people say you'll have if you polish quickly. That's good enough for me.

What I don't think the above captures, and why I think the course is so helpful, is that it doesn't give a good idea of exactly how much of a build you do, the mix of the shellac, the amount you put in your pad, etc. With Marshall there to tell you to put more on the pad or squeeze some out, use lighter or heavier pressure, etc., the finish builds fast and beautifully.

And of course there are nuances. If they need to get the guitar to a customer the next day, they can pore fill and polish in one day. Preferably, the'll let the pore fill rest for 24 hours. Also, putting the guitar in the case immediately after can be dangerous, so giving it a days' rest or so is nice. Plus, trying to do it all in one day means taking extreme care in holding the guitar to not mar the still soft finish.

Sounds very similar to how I do it but I don't use oil when I start using the circular motions. I also wait about 1/2 hour between sessions but then I spread it out over two days and ussually do 2 or three guitars at a time so I'll work one guitar for a couple of hours and then go on to another. The pore filling souinds interesting as I ussually either use Pumice or Epoxy. Think I might get away from epoxy though as I hate the fumes. For Spiriting off at the end I am now using Naptha but I wonder if Going back to oil would be better. I've only once finished a guitar in one day (needed it for a show the next day) and that guitar has had really heavey use and is still great. Pesonally I have never used anything but French polishing on guitars and do love it.

I did my first real (as opposed to classrom) pore fill a few days ago with the water based filler. What a breeze! Of course I managed to stain my hands and the counter black with the dye for the filler, but that is totally my fault! Now if my linen and sandpaper order will ever get delivered I'll be up and running. Otherwise I'll need to start drinking my alcohol for "quality control" purposes. Gotta make sure it is still fresh!

I have used french polishing on a number of guitars and would be interested to here what sequence other people find best, do you do Top, Then sides then Back or work all together.

I would be grateful for your comments

Okay, here's a purposefully bad photograph, intended to show the gloss. I started this back at 9:30 last night, and went until I pooped out. I don't know, maybe 1 1/2 -2 hours? Anyway, the back is not finished because I ran out of time, so I need to do a bit of level sanding, and then do a bit more build and then spirit it off. But, this is what you can accomplish in a few hours of work.

rlabbe38524.3989583333

That's very cool, Roger. Can't wait to take the class.

I've got the Fernandez FP video and it's pretty good, but it was pretty daunting because it seems like it will take forever to finish a guitar that way.

How many and what size of pieces did you bring to the class? So far I'm just planning on bringing some unjoined tops and backs.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Some unjoined tops and backs would be more than
sufficient for the class.   If need be, I can supply
some wood to practice on as well.