French Polishing
We offer to polish small items of furniture of the sort displayed on this page. The finish we choose, after consultation with clients, will depend on the items and the use.
Low polish: Some items may simply need to be sealed in which case we will apply 3 or 4 layers of shellac and finish off with a good quality wax polish. This is the finish we use on hand tools.
Mid polish: Items such as the jewellery box shown below where frequent handling is expected will be finished with several layers of shellac and buffed to a medium shine. This sort of finish works well on open grained woods.
High polish: This is a highly polished finish which uses many layers of shellac which require frequent rubbing down and buffing during the polishing process. It works well on close grained hard woods. The chairs shown on this page received about 30 layers of shellac before being polished to their final level. The final polish on each chair took about 1 hour to complete.
Low polish: Some items may simply need to be sealed in which case we will apply 3 or 4 layers of shellac and finish off with a good quality wax polish. This is the finish we use on hand tools.
Mid polish: Items such as the jewellery box shown below where frequent handling is expected will be finished with several layers of shellac and buffed to a medium shine. This sort of finish works well on open grained woods.
High polish: This is a highly polished finish which uses many layers of shellac which require frequent rubbing down and buffing during the polishing process. It works well on close grained hard woods. The chairs shown on this page received about 30 layers of shellac before being polished to their final level. The final polish on each chair took about 1 hour to complete.
French polished surfaces are fragile and need some after care, however the application of waxes are not needed. To find out more visit the Furniture Medic website.
Note: we do not undertake polishing of large items such as dining tables or pianos. Neither do we undertake what is often referred to as piano finished French Polishing.
The chair on the left is one of a set of four taken from a house clearance. They were all in poor order, dull and lifeless. They would not polish up. So, they were all stripped down to bare wood, oiled with boiled linseed oil, stained and then polished with several layers of shellac to bring them back into a usable condition. They were all re-upholstered.
The bust stand on the right had been used as a plant pot stand. It had water stains. The finish was dull and lifeless. It was stripped back to bare wood before being oiled. It was stained with ebony wood stain and then polished using black shellac.
This box was found with a wax polish but was quite dull. The old polish was removed and several layers of shellac were applied before polishing it to its final condition.
Please call 07748 630222 to discuss any requirements you have.