Applying finish to top (French Polish)

20211016
I began to sand the top for the finish.
Basically how good the result of the finish will be determined by the surface preparation.
Before that I also repair he rosette which had part of the tiles torn out during the planing of the rosette to level with the top.

Repairing the rosette

Repairing the rosette

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Then I began to body the shellac onto the top.
After sometime in the bodying of the shellac, I started to polish.
I use some mineral (non-drying) oil for the lubricant

After sanding the top

Achieve some shine when I started polishing

20211027
As I continue the polishing I noticed some surface weren't as leveled as I had wished.
The uneven surface is quite prominent under the finish.
So I must decide to carry on or to redo the finish.
So I chose the latter and began to sand down the shellac.
Boy, the shellac sure gum up the sand paper easily.
I had a hard time sanding to bare wood.

Imperfections in the surface.

After sanding the surface

After sanding the surface

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Next back to restart the bodying then polishing of the top.
I also took the opportunity to fill the rosette pores with epoxy.
This to have a better even surface on the rosette.

Achieve the shine a little by little

Lower bout

Rosette area

The medullary grains looks much better under shellac

Shine forming

2021204
The final shine was done after a few weeks of polishing.
Not perfect but still ok.
The top was harder to polish due to the presence of the bridge
However, I chose to glue the bridge first for sound tuning purpose before finishing.
So the finish quality had to be compromised a bit for the sake of the sound quality.

Checking the reflection

Getting better

Checking the shine reflection

Acceptable shine

Final shine!