David nice results on the FP. I/ve been doing FP for the past year using 3 types of shellac. In your opinion what is difference between using the royal lac , and your previous method of FP in terms of finish quality ??? and application ??.merci beaucoup and thanks

This makes me want to give it a go!

I've never seen anyone do French polish. You make look easy... I know I'm imagining things.

Thanks for sharing, M

Nice video Dave, Thanks.

Thank you for the informative post! I'm almost thinking I might be up to trying it after seeing you do it. (but somehow I suspect your 50 or so guitar polishing history makes it look way easier than I'll find it, but you have to start somewhere)

Beautiful guitar by the way.

Thanks for doing that video and review. I've been interested in this for a while now and glad to see that you apply it just like regular old FP. I'm definitely going to give this a try. Did I understand you correctly that you use regular shellac for the filling process?

That guitar is stunning looking too btw.

Thanks for taking the time, David. How many applications did you use, and how does it feel on the neck? Lovely guitar, as well!

Alex

David, thank you for the video. You make it look easy...or at least achievable for someone like me. Very pretty guitar, too.

As a amateur home builder I can't ever see spraying nitro in my garage so I've always used the other finishes, Tru Oil, Tung oil and mostly French Polish, Recently I started using Royal Lac and used it on 2 instruments and was VERY happy with it.. I will say i could not get it to work like traditional French polish, it felt a bit thick to me and it just did not "feel" right applying it that way but that may well be just my inexperience.. I did it on in a sort of modified French Polish technique which at the end looked pretty good but then I wet sanded through the grits and finished with polish & swirl remover, it looked very good then IMHO... I think this is now my "go to" finish..

Oh and David, very nice guitar and you seem to use more oil than I do, how do you spirit that off?? i will also say Vejay @ shellac finished is great for service.

Kerry

.. I will say i could not get it to work like traditional French polish, it felt a bit thick to me and it just did not "feel" right applying it that way but that may well be just my inexperience..
Kerry

Kerry, your experience pretty much echoes mine. As I was using the oil for French polishing with Royal Lac it seemed to disappear. When I spirited off there was a dark residue on the cover of the pad, something I had never seen before when using straight shellac. I was not at all certain all the oil came out of the film. Lightly sanding to level the finish the next day was a nightmare. The sandpaper clogged up immediately. I got out my trusty "Painting Materials" by Gettens and Stout and looked up diacetone alcohol. It is indeed a solvent for linseed oil, and it is safe to infer that all vegetable oils (olive, walnut, etc) are soluble in it.
Fast forward a couple of days when I was finishing the neck of this same guitar. No oil or French polishing on the neck, just padding on with a quick motion and a wet pad. After drying overnight and doing a bit of level sanding, the finish powdered in the same way as lacquer or cured varnish. No gumming of the sandpaper. I believe the diacetone alcohol in Royal Lac is dissolving the oil and incorporating it into the final film. Traditional French polishing technique with ethyl alcohol and some sort of oil lubricant is very different because ethanol is not a solvent for vegetable oils. Spiriting off with straight alcohol will remove any oil that gets trapped in the finish as an emulsion.
Olive oil may be a great oil for French polishing; lot of people use it. I got used to the way cold pressed walnut oil works and have stuck with it. Checking with Gettens and Stout again, walnut oil is said to be slower drying than linseed oil. Gettens and Stout have a chart showing the drying curves of cold pressed linseed oil, both in the dark and in diffuse sunlight. The initial set of the sunlight cured oil is about 4 days and tack free in about 7 or 8 days. In the absence of sunlight the same linseed oil has an initial set of 11 days and tack-free dryness of 65 days. One could assume that the typical guitar workshop in North America does not allow us to hang our guitars to cure in diffuse sunlight (i.e. outside).
Mineral oil is also common as a lubricant for French polishing. In Spain many use hair oil (oil for slicking back your hair) which is largely mineral oil. Mineral oil is a hydrocarbon and way different than vegetable oils and my results with mineral oil were less than stellar.