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After debating for nearly a year I decided to go ahead and try U-Beau (hard shellac) to FP my classical. I read the old stories about the finish crazed and how it was reformulated with plasticizers so that it resisted crazing, I was a little dubious until I read the story from Trevor Gore (Australian luthier) in a classical guitar forum that hard shellac was originally developed by Robert Rae and sold by his Sydney based company. When Robert marketed it through U-Beaut against Rea’s advice they took the plasticizer out of the formula. U-Beaut added it back with their second revision of the product.
In any case I am giving it a try and have been very happy with the early results after one boding session on the back of my classical guitar.

Is that EIR?

David L

David L wrote:Is that EIR?

David L

It is EIR. It is a really nice dark piece. Darker than the last classical I built.

I am moving along, actually sort of impatiently waiting between FP sessions on the finishing of this guitar. I am really happy with the way the guitar is coming out. The hard shellac is a cross linking finish so supposedly in 28 days or so it will be pretty hard.
I like the FP look and can actually finish the guitar without any sandpaper or polish by burnishing the finish with a pad and mostly alcohol. At any time I could add more shellac if I am not happy with the way it is going.

I think I finished the back for the boding stage of the French polish. I have about 6 session worth of polishing on the back. A session for me includes charging the inside wad in my muneca. I actually dunk a wad of lambs wool in the shellac and squeeze most of it out. I place the wad in a 4 x 4 piece of cotton. Fold and twist until I can get a little shellac to squeeze out. I back off and blot the muneca off as I do not want anything resembling a drop or drip. For each session I lightly apply the shellac with long ways strokes. I keep applying until things get a little sticky. At that point I put a drop of oil on the muneca and use small swirls to cover the surface I am working on, usually a few times. As the pad dries out and it is harder to swirl, I get rid of the swirls with relatively hard long ways strokes until the surface looks pretty good and there are no swirls and very few streaks.
The pictures show how the back looks, also the top and sides at this point. I still have a couple of sessions to do on the top, sides and the neck. As I am writing this post I am actually waiting for the last surface I have worked on to gas off before I start working on the next surface.
I should be finished by the end of tonight. Although a French polish takes a bunch of dedicated time and work, one can finish the work in a single day.

As this is hard shellac in about 3 weeks it should be a very hard cross linked finish.

Beautiful and interesting!

David L

Very nice John. I have yet to try FP, but will some day.
That is one purty guitar.

Kevin

Nice work John, how is it doing the top with the bridge applied? Can you get right into all the corners? I would love to be able to do this on my classical. I use Tru oil as I can get a reasonable finish with a thin covering.

mike789166 wrote:Nice work John, how is it doing the top with the bridge applied? Can you get right into all the corners? I would love to be able to do this on my classical. I use Tru oil as I can get a reasonable finish with a thin covering.

I usually finish with the bridge off. This is an experiment for me. Technique-wise I am treating it the same as where the sides hit the heel combined with where the fret board hits the top. I am doing the best I can but ultimately I want to make sure I leave enough shellac on the top around the edge so that I can hit the edges with plastic polish after I am finished to remove any funkyness I might have left.

It is looking ok.

I think I am finsihed with the FP. I may do one more spirting off on all of the surfaces if it looks like it needs it tomorrow. Some times as the shellac cures the oils I used float to the surface.