OK, I’ve spent the last week putting many coats of shellac on my guitar project. These have all been base coats. French Polishing the guitar is rather tedious but not very strenuous. Each coat is super thin so it takes a lot to get a good cover over the wood. After about 15 coats, the finish felt pretty smooth but had a lot of swirl marks (which looked like circular cracks in a class). I was a little worried about the final look at this point.
The next step is to apply a few final top coats. This is exactly the same technique with some minor differences. The first difference is that you level the previous coats using a high grit (I used 1200) sand paper with some soap and water (water for lubrication and soap to help the sand paper not get clogged). This took a bit of time but was also not very strenuous. The result had scratch marks that were nearly impossible to see but the cracks were gone. The next step was to rub in (in a circular pattern, hence the swirl marks) the shellac but this time with a few drops of paraffin oil. This oil allows you to rub out the swirl marks and get a glass like finish. After making sure there are no visible swirl marks, I then run the shellac pad with the grain making any marks nearly invisible.
I’ve done a few coats of this and the finish, while not perfect (hey, I’m still learning this), is absolutely amazing for any finish I’ve ever applied. With these kinds of results, I could get to like finishing my projects.
Now, I’ve got to do the same to the back and sides (I’ve done the top and neck). I will glue on the bridge first thing Saturday morning so I should be in good shape for my last guitar making class. This will allow me to come away with a working guitar. I’m very excited.
