French polishing again.

When making the rubber/pad/fad/mouse, what do you guys use for the outer layer? And is that material stretchy?

I ask because I am currently polishing a few 500mm diameter lazy susan's and I found that when using a brand new piece of 300 thread count bed sheet as the outer layer, I get lots of streaks through the finish when straightening out. The bedsheet isn't what I would call stretchy. Being ever resourceful and always looking for the easy way out, I changed things up a bit and chopped up a cotton tshirt to use as the outer layer. This material is stretchy and the streaks in the finish have almost vanished, just needs a bit more work I reckon.

Is the tshirt working better simply because it is much easier to get a tightly wrapped rubber using stretchy material?

I realise I can just shrug my shoulders and say tshirts are #1, and bed sheets sux. But if know the why things work, then I might be able to save a few good tshirts from going under the knife.

I think that the real difference may be the fact that the bedsheet was new and the Tshirt was probably old and worn.

I am aware that new sheets aren't much good for polishing, though I don't know why this is. The t-shirt was brand new as well, I think it may have been too small for me or mistakenly put into wrong pile of clothes on the floor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kuffy

........The t-shirt was brand new as well, I think it may have been too small for me or mistakenly put into wrong pile of clothes on the floor.

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Is that what you told the person who purchased the t-shirt for you. Mind you I don't think you will be able to use that excuse again.:U

The cotton T-shirt material works better than the cotton bedsheet material. However, the t-shirt material is losing fibers as I polish and it is leaving little bumps in the surface which get bigger and bigger as more polish mounds up on top of it. So I decided to research what "linen" is. And as it turns out, linen is NOT cotton sheets. Whowouldathunkit?

I bought some of these from Spotlight, only took me 10 minutes wandering around aimlessly looking at stuff I have no idea about.
https://www.spotlightstores.com/sewi..._source=criteo

This real linen stuff is bloody brilliant! I have read a lot about french polishing and often it is mentioned that "linen is preferred but you can use any ole sheeting". I say it is not "preferred", I say it is a "non-negotiable requirement!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I sanded out a few of the lumps created by the loose cotton fibers and started polishing again with cotton wadding wrapped in the linen. within about 15minutes I have gone from a fairly level surface which was all scuffed up with #400 sandpaper and 0000 steel wool to what it is in the pictures. and weirdly, the rubber never grabbed the surface, not even almost. I still have to do some spiriting off because there is a fair bit of a oil on the surface so i'll do that in a couple of hours time.

Attachment 401065Attachment 401066

Nice work mate! I'll have to keep the linen thing in mind for future.

You have certainly achieved a great finish.

I have never used linen, and never used tee shirt either - I just use old bedsheets that are pretty worn out so are lint-free. The Hard Shellac seems to be fussier with streaking than the normal brown button shellac that I use for old furniture. I have found that you need to keep the rubber drier with the hard shellac as any excess liquid leaves streaks. Warm weather also increases the number of streaks because the alcohol evaporates so quickly.

However, thanks for the tip - I will try some lines and see how I go next time I'm polishing.

David

The results I got the other day in those photos haven't been reproduced since. It was just a fluke. I found more cotton fibers in the finish of all four lazy susan's I am making. I tried to rubber them out and that didn't work so I sanded them out. Started rubbering again and began noticing cotton fibers in the finish starting to accumulate. I think the fibers must be coming from the cotton wadding core of my rubber. I am also getting fine streaks through the finish which is testing my patience. So now I have a fairly high build on all four lazy susan's and maybe tomorrow I will try again to stretch the film out by rubbering but if that doesn't work it will be modern abrasives at the end of next week. And if the modern abrasives cut through the finish I will cry like a schoolgirl and then use poly.