French Polishing-New Guinnea Rosewood

Hi, for my yr 12 major work for woodwork i have designed and constructed a victorian styled dressing table out of New Guinnea Rosewood. I am now up to the stage where i need to make a quick decision on which finish would be most appropriate.

To suit the Victorian style and mark it as a high quality piece of furniture i was thinking of doing a french polish finish. Problem is i have no idea how to do this and have only three weeks until my project is due for marking.

Does NGR need grain filling? and how do you do this? does the shellac work as the grain filler? i have researched on net but havent yet found clear instructions.

How long does it normally take to finish a medium sized project?
any advice???
or helpful hints??

Thanks

Hi,
the following link will tell you you need filler.

http://www.agora.com.au/Rosewood_Technical_info.pdf

French polishing is quick but you will need to do it over a few days to ensure it has chance to harden between sessions.
The better you prepare the surface, the better will be the finished job.
It's a useful skill to pick up and to me is the best way of showing off the underlying timber.
Cheers,
Jim

ps you can use shellac as a grain filler but it works best if the grain is fine. You just spend more time "bodying up" and flattening between sessions.
You can buy commercial grain fillers and they usually come with instructions.
Jim

Perhaps your French Polish technique differs from mine Jim, but the last piece I filled and finished took me weeks and it was only small and finished in summer. A large furniture piece during winter won't be fast enough for this dead line I think.

I admire you ambition here JustBec, but I fear a major project for Y12 with only a few weeks remaining is not the place to be developing your FP technique.

Or hosts Ubeaut publish a guide to French Polishing which is an awesome reference for the novice. It covers all that you need to know from timber preparation to the final finish, and lot more. If this is something you want to do, Niel's handbook is a great place to start.

Just spotted your thread and thought you might be interested in this site Shellac Flakes FAQ for making your own Shellac Finish

The filling does make it take longer. I was thinking of about four sessions a day but of course it doesn't allow for dragging the polish and having to flatten it out etc. You are probably right Kman in that I haven't made sufficient allowance for a number of factors including learning.
It can be very fast though when you think that bespoke coffins used to be french polished using a pretty wet fad to begin with. They didn't have much time available. Still you can cover a lot of mistakes with flowers and in the end you bury them.:U
I wonder if one of the newer type polishes such as qualasole (I think that's the name) would be better. It's far more forgiving of mistakes in that you have less problem with dragging if you go across a wettish patch but it doesn't have the bodying properties of shellac - the surface has to be perfect to get the best out of it.
It would be interesting to see what is to be polished. If it is at all intricate add a week or two.
Cheers,
Jim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jimbur

Still you can cover a lot of mistakes with flowers

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Now, why didn't I think of that?

The first piece I ever French Polished was an infants cot and not a particularly complex one either. The baby was due in late May and I didn't start finishing until late April, little did I know how much effort and hardening time was required. Of course, it got more frustrating as time went on because I was becoming more profecient and the hardneing time was getting longer. So, it was delivered about six weeks late. :-

In hindsight, of course, I should have covered it in soft toys and place the baby in it before anyone had a chance to look at it. :wink:

Any projects where you have joints are difficult. I gather in the old days furniture was dismantled as much as possible before french polishing.
Imagine England in winter - no wonder the polishers were renowned for drinking the meths.
Babies and their products cover a lot including mistakes:U
I wonder if he can say the dog drank his french polish.
Cheers,
Jim

As the previous members have said about polishing I am in agreement.
I made a drop side table out of NGR and I used U-beau waxes for a mirror finish.
You have put in too much work to have it spoiled by selecting the wrong finish
les

Quote:

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Originally Posted by les88

As the previous members have said about polishing I am in agreement.
I made a drop side table out of NGR and I used U-beau waxes for a mirror finish.
You have put in too much work to have it spoiled by selecting the wrong finish
les

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:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup: