After reading so much about General Finishes' Enduro-Var here on the forum, in late June I decided to order a can to compare to Cardinal's Luthierlac, and french polished shellac on test panels of lutz spruce and redwood. They've been ready to buff for a while, but I just got around to it this afternoon and thought others might be interested in my results.
The Products:
- General Finishes Enduro-Var
- Cardinal Luthierlac
- Kusmi Amber Buttonlac from ShellacShack.com
Process
When I applied the Enduro-Var and Luthierlac, I just brushed them on with a foam brush. I brushed six coats of the Enduro-Var, leveled it a week later, and brushed on six more. I followed the same process with the Cardinal. When the Cardinal had had a few weeks to cure, I leveled both finishes, then wet sanded with 600 and 1000 to get it ready for the buffer. I buffed using the process Chris Ensor shared here (it was fantastic Chris - thanks!). If this were a guitar, I'd spray the lacquer to ensure thin coats that don't require a lot of work to level. This time though, my concern wasn't finish thickness, and brushing was just fine.
The french polish process I used was the process taught by Tom Bills in his french polishing course. Although, I have to be honest, I didn't do the third group of bodying sessions, which may have effected the outcome. By the time I was done with the second group, I had a pretty good idea about my preferences.
Working With the Finishes
Working with Enduro-Var was a dream. It had little to no odor, and I simply brushed it on next to the kitchen sink. It was also the easiest finish I've ever leveled -- sanding this stuff level required minimal effort.
The lacquer was lacquer. The fumes can get to you if you're not wearing a respirator, and they linger for hours, even overnight. Even though Cardinal says Luthierlac is ready to buff in seven days, giving it a few weeks seems to make it it a lot easier to level, at least to me.
I can't say how much I enjoy Tom's french polishing method. It's work, but it's somehow soothing. The shellac doesn't have much of a smell, either, and the smell it does have is pleasant. I did my french polishing inside, too.
Results
As a hobbiest, I'm only building a guitar a year. Any exposure to lacquer is infrequent, and I take precautions. That said, I hate spraying. I don't like the compressor noise, and setting up the gun always makes me feel like I'm starting the learning curve from scratch. That's the attraction to french polish to me, and also what had me really interested in Enduro-Var. John Greven said that he brushes it on in American Lutherie #118. When I did these panels, I told myself I was going to use the finish that most made light refract like a diamond. In my opinion, that's the Cardinal, followed by shellac, and then Enduro-Var. The lacquer and shellac are neck and neck IMO, with the lacquer having only the slimmest edge. The difference I see between them and the Enduro-Var in the subtleties. I hope I picked some of them up in the images, but the lacquer and shellac have more depth. They're a "wetter" looking finish when you move the panels around and let the light hit them from different angles -- more prism-like.
If you look at the pictures, the Enduro-Var looks a little yellow-green to me. It's been described as amber-toned, but it's a little more green to my eyes. Even though it's a nice finish, it doesn't bring out the detail in the wood like the lacquer and shellac do. It's there, but with the lacquer and shellac, it's just there more. Again, they have a prism effect that the Enduro-Var seems to have 20-30% less of. It looks good and has a great high sheen, but it doesn't make the light dance and sizzle in quite the same way.
The shellac and lacquer are very close in color. The shellac is just a hair warmer. I tried to pick that up in the pictures, but photographing these was hard!
Well, there you go. I'm attaching some images, but I had to make them a bit low-res to meet the file size requirements. Please feel free to download higher-res versions on my Google Drive. I set my white balance using a grey card, so the color is pretty true to reality, at least on my monitor.
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