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Old 04-11-2021, 06:38 AM
Quickstep192 Quickstep192 is offline
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Default French Polish Help

I’m trying to help a guy on another forum who is having a problem with French Polish.

He’s saying that his French Polish is ending up thicker at the edges, no matter how much attention he pays to the edge while polishing. Any suggestions that I can pass on to help?

I’ve heard of shellac “fat edge” when spraying shellac, but not with FP.

Anyway if you can help me help this guy, we’d both appreciate it.
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Old 04-11-2021, 07:12 AM
redir redir is offline
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How could he even measure it? IF he can physically tell that it is thicker on the edges then he is doing something very wrong. My guess is that he is wetting the pad way too much but that's just a huge guess.
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Old 04-11-2021, 10:09 AM
Quickstep192 Quickstep192 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by redir View Post
How could he even measure it? IF he can physically tell that it is thicker on the edges then he is doing something very wrong. My guess is that he is wetting the pad way too much but that's just a huge guess.
Agreed; As I mentioned, I've seen it happen quite noticeably when spraying shellac- the shellac just migrates to the sharp edges as it dries, leaving a big and very noticeable hill, but I wouldn't think that would happen with FP unless really padding it on heavily.
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Old 04-11-2021, 11:55 AM
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IndianHillMike IndianHillMike is offline
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Without seeing how they are french polishing it will be difficult to diagnose, but I'd say they should try to take more time between putting fresh shellac on their pad and vary what kind of passes they are doing. My technique will be very different in my first session versus my final, but typically I will add shellac to my pad and apply it using low pressure straight passes parallel to the grain and slightly increasing pressure as the pad starts to dry out. I might go over the entire top again with straight passes (still no fresh shellac) before then doing the entire top with small circles. After that I might add more shellac to the pad and go back to straight passes but making sure to start in a different spot than the last time. Keeping a mix of straight passes and circles helps keep things even and prevents rippling and orange peel. Also try to keep your entry and exit off of the top (or whatever) as smooth as possible. Hope some of that helps!
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Old 04-13-2021, 12:21 AM
Simon Fay Simon Fay is offline
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As mentioned by others, I can see this happening with spraying shellac -- but not with the French Polish technique. I think your friend needs to revisit French Polishing basics because he/she has missed something important along the way. There's a really nice tutorial on YouTube by a classical builder that shows his process. Achieving an even coating is fairly easy with French Polish - so something is obviously amiss regarding technique.
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Last edited by Simon Fay; 04-14-2021 at 12:51 AM.
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