Shopsmith Forums

BuckeyeDennis wrote:I love the table. But you'd better not serve alcohol on that beauty!

Yeah, but at least shellac can be spot repaired pretty easily and invisibly! The old finish was nitrocellulose lacquer and my wife had a plant on it and some standing water got under the finish. When that happens, you've got to strip lacquer completely because lacquer cannot be repaired invisibly.

Your finish looks great Al. French polish is my go to finish as well. I had the good fortune to learn it from my friend Patrice Lejeune at The American School Of French Marquetry. He got his training at the Boulle Academy in Paris and is an amazing artist, marqueteur, and French polish expert.
In this video he tells how he does it. I have seen no better explanation.
http://youtu.be/web_pJt0SR8

shipwright wrote:Your finish looks great Al. French polish is my go to finish as well. I had the good fortune to learn it from my friend Patrice Lejeune at The American School Of French Marquetry. He got his training at the Boulle Academy in Paris and is an amazing artist, marqueteur, and French polish expert.
In this video he tells how he does it. I have seen no better explanation.
http://youtu.be/web_pJt0SR8

Thanks, Paul, great video! The main difference in his technique from what I learned is that I put down a spit coat of shellac before I pore fill.

The biggest problem I have and maybe you can ask your friend how he deals with this, is when working into a blind corner. In furniture, particularly refinishing, this comes up when polishing a cockbeaded drawer front. The area next to the cockbeading but especially the corners, is very difficult to get with a pad.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:I love the table. But you'd better not serve alcohol on that beauty!

And, don't serve coffee or soda on it either. Never leave anything made of vinyl on that surface for more than a few minutes at a time as the hydrocarbons in plastic eat shellac really fast.

He polishes before assembly. Assembly is with hide glues so cleanup does not affect the surface. In restoration the piece is often disassembled (fortunately all real antiques are glued with hide glues). If not I don't think there are any tricks other than using a small pad and working slowly and carefully. On an existing piece you often won't want to disturb the patina anyway.
Check out his entire list of blogs on LJ but this one deals with this topic specifically.
http://lumberjocks.com/Patricelejeune/blog/67562

I like shellac as a sanding seal, a first coat prior to a water based poly and as a final coat on some projects. The durability issue has been addressed by Royal Lac http://www.shellacfinishes.com/videos-2/ . I used it on my last project and the claims have been supported. Not as tough as poly but a much stronger shellac finish. Check it out.

sehast wrote:I like shellac as a sanding seal, a first coat prior to a water based poly and as a final coat on some projects. The durability issue has been addressed by Royal Lac http://www.shellacfinishes.com/videos-2/ . I used it on my last project and the claims have been supported. Not as tough as poly but a much stronger shellac finish. Check it out.

I will give it a try on my next nice project, a bit pricey though.

Excellent job on the table! Looks like a sheet of glass....

Mike