Planox - Restoration - Part 2
The wood
I used first some cloth and then 0000 steel wire with wood furniture cleaner to remove the grime from the surface on the outside. This has taken off most of the grime but has left a dull finish on the wood. Hopefully, the French polish will recover this. [I have to say that I have never French-polished anything in my life before, so discovering the technique is now part of this game! It’s very tempting to take the easy way out and use clear varnish, but what’s the fun in that? Having grown up with the Planox around me I don’t think I would like the effect. Varnish is always a thicker layer than French polish and a lot more obvious. It also does not give the same high quality lustre finish. ] After buying some French polish, finding an old T-shirt and experimenting with making wads and applying 8-figures, I started practicing on the main unit. One of the good things about French polish is that shellac (its base) is dissolvable with white spirit. So, if you don’t like the results, or something has gone wrong, it’s relatively easy to remove the last layer and start again! Obviously that is easier when it’s not completely dry yet, but that takes several days. And believe me, I was thankful for this particular property a couple of times: Shellac has this annoying habit of drying very quickly, and one of the key advices on all French-polishing textbooks is to make sure that you continuously move the polishing wad. I didn’t realise how important that was, until the first few attempts. Having done a quick layer of French polishing on the front and the top, I’ve come to appreciate another point that is highlighted in the textbooks: French polishing will not cover, but highlight any blemishes already there. So if you want blemishes to disappear, you really need to treat them before the polishing starts, otherwise you are just accentuating them. So, now that the first coat has gone on it’s quite obvious that I need to stop and do some more careful preparation with sanding and filling before I French polish it properly. I still don’t intend to go down to bare wood, but there are some particularly ugly scratches that I would like to try and cover if possible.
I used first some cloth and then 0000 steel wire with wood furniture cleaner to remove the grime from the surface on the outside. This has taken off most of the grime but has left a dull finish on the wood. Hopefully, the French polish will recover this. [I have to say that I have never French-polished anything in my life before, so discovering the technique is now part of this game! It’s very tempting to take the easy way out and use clear varnish, but what’s the fun in that? Having grown up with the Planox around me I don’t think I would like the effect. Varnish is always a thicker layer than French polish and a lot more obvious. It also does not give the same high quality lustre finish. ] After buying some French polish, finding an old T-shirt and experimenting with making wads and applying 8-figures, I started practicing on the main unit. One of the good things about French polish is that shellac (its base) is dissolvable with white spirit. So, if you don’t like the results, or something has gone wrong, it’s relatively easy to remove the last layer and start again! Obviously that is easier when it’s not completely dry yet, but that takes several days. And believe me, I was thankful for this particular property a couple of times: Shellac has this annoying habit of drying very quickly, and one of the key advices on all French-polishing textbooks is to make sure that you continuously move the polishing wad. I didn’t realise how important that was, until the first few attempts. Having done a quick layer of French polishing on the front and the top, I’ve come to appreciate another point that is highlighted in the textbooks: French polishing will not cover, but highlight any blemishes already there. So if you want blemishes to disappear, you really need to treat them before the polishing starts, otherwise you are just accentuating them. So, now that the first coat has gone on it’s quite obvious that I need to stop and do some more careful preparation with sanding and filling before I French polish it properly. I still don’t intend to go down to bare wood, but there are some particularly ugly scratches that I would like to try and cover if possible.
posted by George Parapadakis at 2:01 pm
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