French polishing

Talk about musical instrument construction, setup and repair.

Moderators: kiwigeo, Jeremy D

User avatar
TallDad71
Blackwood
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:20 am
Contact:

Re: French polishing

Post by TallDad71 » Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:30 am

kiwigeo wrote:
Sun Mar 19, 2023 10:21 am
I believe hard shellac can be sprayed.

Bodying is basically building up very thin layers of shellac. The final shine is achieved with the final pad sessions where you reduce the cut of the shellac mix. I'm not sure a spray gun can apply layers off finish as thin as you can apply with a pad. My thoughts only and I havent tried using a spray gun for shellac.

TallDad71 wrote:
Sun Mar 19, 2023 6:47 am
Has anyone experimented with spraying shellac?

Spend some time getting shellac onto the guitar, reasonably quickly with a hvlp sprayer, then bodying to get a shine.

Repeat the process until satisfied.

I like French polishing but you sure can have too much of a good thing.
Thanks for the opinion.

The spray gun can spray incredibly finely, almost to the point where you could spray continuously on the front back back and sides and expect it to evaporate in between visits.

I’ll give it a try on some scraps I think.
Alan
Peregrine Guitars

User avatar
joel
Blackwood
Posts: 280
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 7:55 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: French polishing

Post by joel » Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:56 am

What spray gun are you using? Full size or one of those modellers ones? I've been thinking of trying spraying if I could spray shellac that'd be ideal!

Also, what's the shelf life of that Hard Shellac stuff?
- If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs. - David Daye.

- The mouth of a happy man is filled with beer. -

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: French polishing

Post by kiwigeo » Wed Mar 22, 2023 2:18 pm

Ubeaut hard shellac has a posted shelf life of 18months....
joel wrote:
Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:56 am
What spray gun are you using? Full size or one of those modellers ones? I've been thinking of trying spraying if I could spray shellac that'd be ideal!

Also, what's the shelf life of that Hard Shellac stuff?
Martin

User avatar
Bob_H
Blackwood
Posts: 156
Joined: Sat Apr 11, 2020 2:27 pm
Location: Lyndoch, South Australia

Re: French polishing

Post by Bob_H » Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:39 pm

joel wrote:
Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:56 am
Also, what's the shelf life of that Hard Shellac stuff?
I asked Shines this question the other day - this is their response:

"Shellac varnish by itself has a shelf life of min 24 months. Hardener by itself will be fine for years together.
However, shellac varnish + hardener is a bit tricky. Most of our customers have reported that they usually finish the shellac+hardener mixture within 1 week. You can try with a small amount of mixture to see how long it will last.

Hope this helps.

Thank you,
Pranam"

I did two instruments, a couple of weeks apart, with the same batch of mixed hard shellac - I was much happier with the first instrument than the second, when it just did not go on as well, or dry as quickly.
Bob Holbert
Lyndoch

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: French polishing

Post by kiwigeo » Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:45 am

Interesting....some conflicting information.

Ubeaut hard shellac usually has an 18 month shelf life on the bottle.

The Ubeaut Hard Shellac is essentially the Shine's product. I'm pretty sure Shines sold their recipe to Ubeaut some time back and they no longer supply made up hard shellac (I was told this by Pranam last time I phoned up Shines).

Not sure what's happened to Robert..he used to always answer the phone and field questions.

Bob_H wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:39 pm
joel wrote:
Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:56 am
Also, what's the shelf life of that Hard Shellac stuff?
I asked Shines this question the other day - this is their response:

"Shellac varnish by itself has a shelf life of min 24 months. Hardener by itself will be fine for years together.
However, shellac varnish + hardener is a bit tricky. Most of our customers have reported that they usually finish the shellac+hardener mixture within 1 week. You can try with a small amount of mixture to see how long it will last.

Hope this helps.

Thank you,
Pranam"

I did two instruments, a couple of weeks apart, with the same batch of mixed hard shellac - I was much happier with the first instrument than the second, when it just did not go on as well, or dry as quickly.
Martin

User avatar
TallDad71
Blackwood
Posts: 191
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:20 am
Contact:

Re: French polishing

Post by TallDad71 » Mon Mar 27, 2023 4:53 pm

joel wrote:
Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:56 am
What spray gun are you using? Full size or one of those modellers ones? I've been thinking of trying spraying if I could spray shellac that'd be ideal!

Also, what's the shelf life of that Hard Shellac stuff?
I bought into the Fuji spray hvlp system. I went for their best spray gun and it’s amazing.
The spray pattern goes from about 12mm to 400mm. The flow control is key and finely adjustable, so that even at 12mm close up you can prevent flooding the work.

https://www.axminstertools.com/fuji-min ... ea72671cfc
Alan
Peregrine Guitars

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google and 99 guests