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I finished the bodying stage of my French Polish. I will start finishing it off with a 1 lb cut of shellac with a bit more alcohol in the pad. I stopped using oil.


My construction photos are in an earlier post:
http://www.kitguitarsforum.com/forum/threads.php?id=5631_0_2_14_C

Thats looking good! This is the worst part...so close but you cant play it yet!!

Yeah, I like it. I've got to make me a classical one day soon.
Good job.

Kevin

Thanks,

At this point I am holding back trying not to get to much in a hurry. I play classical so I have long finger nails on my right hand. Yesterday managed to scratch the finish on the back with a nail. Luckily it was not too deep. I dusted the spot with pumice, and added little extra shellac to the pad and the scratch went away.

you've come a long way, looking good!

darren

I could not wait any longer. I finished the nut and put the strings on. It sounds good. The height of the strings at the 12 fret is perfect.

Very nicely done. Salut!
I had thought about stringing mine up once I put on the last clear coat on my 1st, but somehow refrained until it was cured. Gawd, I hated that wait.
Might succumb to temptation on my next.
How'd you like the French Polish? Is it shiny or satin?
Bob

Thanks,

I liked using the French polish process. It took awhile but as I am doing this as a hobby, that is sort of the point. It was fun going to the web for info and viewing videos of the process. There were two camps for filling with pumice: one just alcohol and pumice, no shellac and never put pumice directly on the guitar and avoid those silly pumice bags. The other, use shellac, use the silly bags to dust the powder on the area your work. I tried both. I spent hours on the no shellac in the mumeca way with little to show for it. I really tried to mix up the variables to solve the lack of progress. (Too much alcohol washing out the fill, working to much in one area, not enough, maybe a thicker seal coat of shellac …) After a really long time I had about a quarter of the back mostly filled. I tried the shellac way (1 lb cut with extra alcohol on the muneca) with the silly pumice bags. I had half of the back filled nicely in about a half an hour. I sanded the whole back down, as the two different methods had slightly but noticeable differences and refilled with the shellac and pumice method. I did follow the instructions from Millburn guitars for the rest of the process as their tutorial is very well put together.
The two areas that were hard for me as a first timer were dealing with straight edges (the top\fret board joint and cleanup work near the bridge) and knowing when to stop. To deal with the straight edges I finally came up with taking the cover off my muneca, just after I loaded it, and wrapping it on the edge of a felt sanding block. I decided I was finished after many sessions of glazing when I realized that I was putting as many slight surface flaws on the guitar as I was taking off.