Wood Magazine 59 by Larry Clayton

Author:Larry Clayton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Wood, Home and hobby woodworker
Publisher: Meredith Corporation
Published: 1993-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

Illustrations: Jim Stevenson

WOOD MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 1993

Sal Marino's

This Brooklyn-based woodworking expert puts a new spin on a classical finishing technique—French polishing. Here, he tells you how to get exactly the same high-gloss look on your turnings in a fraction of the time that it took the old masters.

The French polishing commonly found on European classical furniture produces a glasslike surface. But the process takes a long time to learn and apply.

Brooklyn craftsman Sal Marino briefly explains: "The old way, French polishing was done with shellac, alcohol, pumice powder, and elbow grease. The whole idea was to build up a very beautiful shiny finish by rubbing on coats of alcohol-thinned shellac with a pad made of wool and linen.

"A finisher continually moved the pad soaked in alcohol and shellac and peppered with pumice across the piece, pushing down as he went," Sal goes on. "The alcohol blew off [evaporated] very quickly, leaving a thin film of shellac and pumice down in the pores. Then, he would change the proportion—increasing the shellac—as the finish built. It's quite an art."

According to Sal, modern padding lacquers, which blend shellac and lacquer with solvents and retarders, have replaced French polishing because they're easier to work with. And his friction-film

finish for woodturnings is no exception to this advancement.

"It's very similar to French polishing as practiced by the masters because you apply pressure to the spinning piece," Sal says. "But it results in a beautiful, high-gloss, dust-free finish—just like French polishing—in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take."

Heat, the essence of a friction-film finish

How can even an inexperienced woodworker achieve such results when it takes months to perfect real French polishing? "Two reasons," Sal explains. "First, with this finish, the film actually builds up on the surface. And second, the film isn't achieved conventionally, like by spraying, but by pressure application with a cloth. As you increase the application pressure, it generates heat that dries the surface film. And as the film dries, the pressure burnishes it—as in French polishing—to

make the surface really pop. That's also why it works best on turned objects—the finish requires the heat from the friction of pressure on the spinning object"

How to work up to a faux French polish

Sal admits that one of the secrets to a high-gloss, friction finish lies in the surface preparation. "If you get a real good surface from the [ lathe j tool, then you don't have to do much sanding," he says.

Actually, the sanding Sal does takes little more than a few minutes because he works on a spinning vessel mounted in the lathe. Here's how he starts out:

"What I do is sand with progressively finer papers—120, 220, 320, 400, 600, then jump to 1200. They're all dry abrasive, and applied at the same speed the piece was finish-turned at," says Sal. "The 120- and 220-grit are cloth-backed garnet papers so they

Although Sal sands with six progressively finer grits of abrasives, including 1200, each sanding step only requires about 30 seconds.

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