Sunday 5 October 2014

Reply to Dale

Hello and thanks for your kind comments regarding my Blogsite they are very much appreciated.

Very interesting questions!

As in your order:

1) Firstly, I have very rarely read any books on French polishing, track down old books from the Library however, I do look at YouTube just to see if there are any new tips or tricks but without success. They are often just semi skilled polisher's or others showing themselves polishing but in reality they are just going through the motions pretense fools nobody. So I can't help you with that one.

2) Small nibs embedded in the surface?  well the answer is in the question! If you are getting nibs / dust on the surface of the work despite keeping your workshop clean, then perhaps the preparation of the wooden surface is not sufficient and there could be minute pimples on the surface to ensure that there is no dust at all. If you have a spray pump then you could try and blow over the surface with the air gun.

Failing that you may be having problems because you are polishing with a too wet rubber and thus causing the surface to become too sticky and therefore likely to attract dust and fine grim.

Another cause of nibs on the surface, is that you are possibly not changing your rubber rag frequently. If you don't change your rag regularly dust and excess oil build up on the rubber surface and then can go nowhere other tan the polished surface.
Try this!  Open your rubber and add a little pumice powder as this acts like a very fine grinder for an extremely fine finish.

3) Have I published the steps to French polishing? That is a good question as I have written a great deal of French polishing.

I have written that might help you, is Finishing stages & Stiffing off I wrote that on 23/08/2012
And I also wrote French polishing and rubber making on 21/01/2011 Both these items should help you.

To find them please scroll down the right hand side of my Blog, where you will find (Blog Archive) a list of posts showing the appropriate years etc click on the year required and search. 

I hope this will help you in you quest to solve the problems? Thanks for your enthusiasm and interest in French polishing.
Regards,
Andrew. 

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Andrew for your response. I have never changed the rag on my tampon but your logic is correct. I will change it tomorrow and see if that makes a difference.
    I also appreciate the idea about the pumice inside of the tampon - that thought has never crossed my mind but it sounds as if it would produce a fine finish.
    Thanks again for the time and effort you put into this blog.
    dlb
    .

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  2. Andrew, I previously asked the following question:
    "2) Small nibs embedded in the surface?"
    Yesterday I discovered the answer to it. My Grandfather was Scrooge and the acorn does not fall far from the tree! I wear nitril gloves when I work and have been able to use one pair for about 2 weeks before tearing so, while polishing yesterday I noticed more 'nibs' on the furniture! Upon further examination I noticed that they looked suspiciously like the dried shellac on my gloves! I had my answer!
    Thanks,
    dlb
    .

    ReplyDelete