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    French Polishing for Beginners - Easy to Follow Step by Step Instructions to French Polish at Home
    French Polishing for Beginners - Easy to Follow Step by Step Instructions to French Polish at Home
    French Polishing for Beginners - Easy to Follow Step by Step Instructions to French Polish at Home
    Ebook52 pages32 minutes

    French Polishing for Beginners - Easy to Follow Step by Step Instructions to French Polish at Home

    By W. A. G. Bradman

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    About this ebook

    This vintage handbook provides practical instructions in the art of French Polishing – a wood finishing technique. Illustrated with diagrams throughout, it is still of use to anyone interested in classic woodcrafts and traditional wood finishing techniques today. Contents include: Wood Finishing; Staining and Filling; Fadding; Colouring; Bodying; Stiffing and Spiriting off; Ebonised and Ivory Finish Ebonising; Faults and How to Avoid Them. Many early books are becoming extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing this vintage work, which has been carefully selected for its interest and relevance to a modern audience, in a high quality and affordable edition. It features a specially written new introduction and reproductions of the artwork from the original text.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781444659528
    French Polishing for Beginners - Easy to Follow Step by Step Instructions to French Polish at Home

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      Book preview

      French Polishing for Beginners - Easy to Follow Step by Step Instructions to French Polish at Home - W. A. G. Bradman

      POLISHING—I

      STAINING AND FILLING

      As a surface finish for furniture work, french polishing is unsurpassed. Providing it has been properly applied and that an occasional polishing with furniture cream is given, it will last indefinitely. The passing years merely bring a mellow depth and richness unequalled by any other finish.

      For some reason the processes involved in french polishing furniture are, to most people, wrapped in mystery. The opinion is often expressed that unless one knows the art and has learned the tricks of the trade from some hoary old gentleman who has spent his life at the polishing bench, it is hopeless to expect the amateur to do the job. Very well, let us do a little de-bunking!

      There is an art in french polishing—so there is in sweeping a chimney, washing dishes, laying paving stones or feeding a baby!

      There is no mystery about french polishing—merely the methodical application of logical processes.

      What ‘tricks of the trade’ there are, will be covered in the following pages.

      And that is all!

      Stages in French Polishing.

      In general, french polishing is done in seven stages, although one or more may be omitted according to circumstances. The first six are, in their order of working, as follows:—

      Staining.

      Filling the Grain.

      Fadding.

      Colouring.

      Coating.

      Bodying.

      The finishing stage is either stiffing, spiriting off or acid finishing and each will be described later. To make a good job of french polishing the stages must be correctly worked, each being satisfactorily completed before the next is started. It will of course be realised that a certain amount of skill is required and this can only be developed by actual practice. It is better to do the work on a ‘practice’ piece of wood rather than to wait until you are ready to polish an actual item of furniture. The practice piece should be fairly large so that there is plenty of room in which to work the rubber—(and therefore good opportunities to miss parts of the surface!). A good scheme to follow is to use two practice pieces, one a length of board about three feet long by 6 inches or so wide—(wider if possible), and a piece of plywood about two feet square. With these two pieces to work on you should easily develop the necessary skill and confidence with which to tackle ‘serious’ work.

      It seems hardly necessary to say that french polishing should always be done in a dust-free atmosphere. It is also an advantage to have the room or workshop warm as the polish will flow much more easily under these conditions. The bench should be arranged in front of a window so that when working, the surface can be viewed against the light. By tilting the head sideways and looking across the work towards the light, any streaks can be easily seen and the path of the rubber will show up quite plainly. When looking straight down on the work it is often difficult to see just where the rubber has passed.

      STAINING THE WOOD.

      Furniture is often polished without any preliminary staining, though it is more usual to do so when french polish is to be used. There are two main reasons for using stain, first to darken the work to a shade which will give better wear than the natural

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