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2021-12-04

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


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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!

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