French polishing is a skill that takes a lot of practice to do well. Suggesting that someone who has never done French polishing before repair their own finish is extremely poor advice: the "fix" will be much worse than the current damage. The place to learn French polishing is not on the face of an expensive instrument.
The "polish", itself, is a mixture of shellac and alcohol - and possible small amounts of various resins. The builder of the guitar, being in Canada, will not send you, in the U.S., some polish. The polish is listed as a flammable/hazardous liquid and is very expensive to ship internationally. There are many possible suppliers in the U.S.
The violin family of instruments are typically finished with a brushed-on varnish, not French polish.
Anyone skilled at French polishing should be able to repair your finish, be they a furniture maker or guitar maker.
There are two aspects to the repair. The first is color, the second is reflection. If a custom color has been used - either using a specific grade/color of shellac, or a specific tint - that will need to matched. It might be possible for a skilled French polisher to "redistribute" the existing finish to "seal" the scratches/gouges, depending upon the depth of the damage. If so, that might be all that is necessary, and would be neither expensive nor lengthy, for a skilled, experienced French polisher. (It'll almost certainly be a mess for a novice.)
The second is how light reflects from the surface of the finish. Imperfections in the surface will be increasingly obvious the higher the gloss of the finish, due to how light is reflected from the surface and its irregularities. For the scratches/gouges to be entirely invisible, their depressions will need to be addressed. This can be by steaming, sanding or filling. Again, the face of an expensive guitar is not the place to learn how to do these things. Whether that is necessary depends upon the extend of the damage, not readily obvious just by looking at the photos.
French polish, when cured, is not a "soft" finish. It is thin and can be delicate. While freak accidents can happen at almost any time, leaving an expensive instrument sitting on a stand 24/7 is to invite damage, particularly in an area where there is foot traffic, pets or children. While there are some good arguments for storing guitars on stands those who do need to understand the risks involved in doing so.
|