How to Strip and French Polish Wood Furniture
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- Опубліковано 31 січ 2018
- In this video Simon explains, in depth, the processes of french polishing using shellac and the benefits of applying a high quality beeswax polish to either bare or french polished wood.
0:17 Inspection of severely sun-bleached rosewood piano lid or fall
2:06 Applying stripper to remove the finish
4:21 Removing the dissolved old finish with coarse wire wool
6:55 The original rosewood is revealed
7:38 Neutralising the surface
9:13 Why not to sand
10:46 Dividing the stripped area to enable comparison of a traditional french polish finish to a natural wax finish
11:46 Applying Gilboys 'pure gold' beeswax polish to one section - bit.ly/2CyTbm4
12:46 Applying Gilboys 'rose gold' beeswax polish to another section - bit.ly/31amt4G
13:42 Applying french polish to the other section with a fad (french polisher's rubber). Discover how to make a French Polisher's Rubber here: • How to make a French P...
16:42 De-nibbing or 'cutting back' the surface with 320 sandpaper
18:30 Using a 'rubber' to 'body' the surface
23:40 The right way to remove the oil by 'spiriting' the surface and how professional french polishers spot any remaining oil
29:09 Buffing the natural wax finishes for a satin sheen
30:42 Applying 'rose gold' beeswax polish ( bit.ly/31amt4G ) to a section that has not been stripped of the degraded and broken down finish
31:36 Applying 'antique gold' beeswax polish ( bit.ly/2VbtwGp ) to a section that has not been stripped of the degraded and broken down finish
32:34 Buffing the wax polished areas after 20 minutes. "Let's buff".
33:28 Comparison of the results
Gilboys Gold can deliver such a stunning finish because it has a very high beeswax content in comparison to other brands that focus on profit. Our intention has never been to compete on price, but to simply make the best beeswax polish there is.
For more information on Gilboys Beeswax Polishes: bit.ly/2EPFxJk
Follow us on Facebook: / gilboyspolish
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Visit our website: bit.ly/2EK6cHJ - Навчання та стиль
There's something immensely satisfying about something skill-based where you slowly and extensively work with something until you reach a moment where you start noticing your dedicated work paying off. This is why I love woodworking and finishing so much. Just like spending hours on getting a beautiful mirror shine on your shoes, it shows people that you have the patience and skills to reach something others aren't willing to do. Some might call it a waste of time, but It's an accomplishment that makes me feel good. I love detail work. I wish more of that was appreciated here in the U.S.
It is nice to see someone putting a point on their rubber and keeping it there, sign of a tradesman.
Your love for what you too is so obvious. Absolutely lovely work! Thank you for sharing 😊
Thank you. We do enjoy our restoration work. I'm glad you enjoyed watching it.
Thank you. We do enjoy our restoration work. I'm glad you enjoyed watching it.
Legend has it that he's still rubbing it now 2019. Man loves rubbing wood
The Legends are true. He's actually worn a hole through it and is now rubbing the work bench bellow.
@@GilboysRestoration hahahaha love it 😂😂
Don't forget: he stripped first. :)
Don’t we all.
Lamster66 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The vocabulary of this man is beautiful
Fantastic video, I found it very informative. Thanks for the insight!
Thank god for craftsmen such as yourself. I always wanted to be able to work on wood, but the currents of life have made that quite impossible. Thank you!
thanks for your time, man, sharing this with us!
Great demonstration. I learned a lot of interesting and useful stuff by watching this so thanks for that.
Wow, now this is new to me but I just love the results... Will have to watch the video 5 more times to pick up the proper process. Thanx a mil for sharing!
Thank you. It's a very rewarding process.
Thank you. This is the tutorial i needed. Perfectly done.
And the grain in that rosewood is stunning!
Thankyou for opening my eyes to this amazing process, I had never seen it actually being done before & now understand why it was necessary to use the paint stripper to clean the base rather than sandpaper it down. French polish brought out the most exquisite grain & the finish was an absolute delight & the relative comparison was what made me really sit up & comprehend the difference between just waxing or cleaning & waxing vs sanding,etc. very educating. Thankyou for sharing this knowledge as I certainly learnt something new today. Gratitude for sharing & much respect for your skills! Best wishes.
Our pleasure. We hope to have more videos on the channel soon.
Best wishes, Simon
love the French polish, thanks for sharing!
Excellent video - straight into the subject, every step illustrated, number of coats illustrated, no glossing over (unintended) prep required. I'm now ready to do some rocking chairs. Thank you very much.
The way you make you polish rubber is spot on...
What a real professional ...beautiful thank you.
Remarkable doesn't begin to cover it. Thank you so much for this demonstration.
Thanks Bud.
Absolutely beautiful finish.
I watched this before attempting to get a few marks out of our Ercol dining table. So glad I did - there's a lot of useful information here.
Very beautiful at the end! Many useful things said!
Love the clear explanation, very helpful for the beginner! Thank you for taking time to make this videos !
Thanks for showing this. Very clear explanations. . .
Thank You. I hope it helps you get an insight to how to French Polish. I've seen too many videos showing the wrong way (in our opinion) to French Polish. Many Thanks, Simon
An exelent video for someone like me who is interested in refurbishing furniture!
A brilliant video, thank you.
I love that... there's many vids on youtube on how to do this but "this is the right way".
I hate his blasphemous attitude
Really entertaining to watch. Thank you for taking the time to show us your craft. Cheers!
Thank you. I have tried to get as much information in there as possible.
Excellent video, I learned a lot, many thanks.
A true craftsman at work. beautiful
Thank you
Very nice work, and and enjoyable, educational video. Many thanks!
wow, I am going to have to learn to be patient, the french polish is beautiful, I cant imagine that with wax on it as well.
Absolutely love this video. I've watched it at least 5 times now. I've been brushing shellac on bits for about the last 6 month and getting good finishes, but after watching this I picked up all of the bits I need. I'm literally about to fad on my first layers of shellac. It's on an Indian rosewood peice of furniture that I've made and I soon realised I needed to grain fill it - shellac is not a grain filler! Anyway, many thanks Simon and everyone at gilboys :)
how do you grain fill it? Thanks
Excellent. That was fascinating, well explained and informative. Thank you
Thank you, it's always good to see our films being appreciated.
Wish he was here to upgrade my living room suite. Very beautiful work.
Thank you Esther.
Always tried to French polish and it looked ok BUT YOU have shown me the best way , WHAT A FANTASTIC JOB
Hi Mike.
I hope you have success.
Cheers Simon
Thanks
nice to see someone who knows what he is doing.removing the oil is most importent as it will breakout later.used to polish pianos in the sixtys.
Old World craft🤎🖤
Thank you for showing this, beautiful work❣️❤️
Thanks for this interesting demonstration.
Our pleasure, Thanks for watching.
Incredible, thank you 😊👍👍👍👍😊
Gosh! Loved this!
Wow. Love the presentation, the skill, the narrative explanation. Thank you. There are videos out there that only shows "what I did" and this is clearly a "how I did it". Thank you. A real masterclass.
Great job. Thanks!
very nice work that gave me some useful ideas thank you.
Very instructive. I use French polish for finishing classical guitars. I used to grain fill with pumice or rottenstone, but recently have tried epoxy filler with very good results.
Hi Jim. Thank you. It's difficult to shorten the process to just half an hour but I think it gives a little insight to how we do it.
this is quite fascinating,so many ways to care for beautiful wood. im ditching the can of pledge today!
Excellent video. Quite informative. Thank you for sharing.
Glad it was helpful. Thank you
Awesome video!!! 👏👏👏
Very nice 👍 thank you so much for all your great work.
Thank you for this fantastic video!
Thank you.
That is gorgeous
Very Impressive! Thank you
Excellent video!!! Good voice and film quality.
Well, that was incredible to watch. I have tried to watch how to do French polish before and never was the explanation so thorough as to how and why? Thank you!
No matter what contemporary products that I've seen none ever come close to the look of hand rubbed French polish. They usually look mass production or just plastic. It's definitely worth the hand work.
Wow, thanks for the professional tips on polish
Thanks Marc. I hope it helps.
@@GilboysRestoration You never stop learning, Got a dinning table with heat marks, cost me nothing, so nothing to lose, will give it a try from start to finish. Let you know the results from following your tutorial.
Absolutely brilliant! They’re all fantastic. Even the original unrestored in the right surroundings would be ok to me. Somehow, the old decay, and even covered in dust can be welcomed as part of the story and give off a sense of peace in the right placement, the right environment, the right setting. I think your video is excellent and very informative and shows how to respect beautiful wood. How to avoid the B and Q look! Lol! Thank you for your time and expertise and sharing your skills! David.
‘Tis a thing of beauty
Fantastic. Many thanks..learned a lot...
This (without the stripping) is the exact same method my mother used to apply finish to new furniture fifty years ago. In Spain it's called "barnizado a muñequilla".
Good explanation dude
French polishing is a technique. It’s not the substance used to polish, which is actually shellac. Shellac can also be applied with a brush. However, in that case, one couldn’t say that the instrument or piece of furniture was French polished. I just wanted to make it clearer for those who were wondering.
Thank you, the video seemed to suggest that the substance used was "french polish" and that it was a 'special' polish. What is the difference in finish between applying shellac with a brush and french polishing - does the latter give a high gloss finish?
Jay S I don’t know whether applying shellac with a brush gives a higher gloss. As I mentioned French polish is the technic he uses to apply the shellac with a pad. With a brush, you would still have a shellac polish. But just not a French polished piece of furniture or instrument.
Jay S Applying shellac with a brush wouldn't be termed French polishing. Technically you would be what they term spirit varnishing. You can get it extremely glossy but it requires going through finer and finer abrasives/polishing compounds. Alternately you can do a mix, part brushed and finished off with a French polishing fad. The real difference between the two methods is that the action of the fad helps to fill the grain or any pin holes/blemishes. Brushing isn't so good at that aspect. A brush with extremely soft hairs is used, very thin shellac, many many coats for a full gloss flat finish. Don't assume that brushing the stuff on is easy, it isn't.
Jay S one consideration which was eluded to but which plays an important factor in the final result - he mentioned the wood had its grain filled. Some woods are open grained, others closed. On an open grained wood that has been filled, you inherently wind up with a more level finish. The filler can often be dyed which can be used for effect.
The French polishing technique, I suppose is an early method at filling the Grain, cut shellac brushed on and sanded can do serve the purpose, effective but takes practice and patience
@@vihuelamig Also, since the shellac dries so quickly brush applications tend to build too fast and leave a less than desirable surface. I guess that's why the progression through polishing compounds is recommended.
That is so satisfying
Well done!!!........
Thanks for sharing
Always mind the eyes!
Especially when using an aggressive stripper such as you use, even a water based coating can make the eye sting if there is a splash as when working on a large piece. Great tutorial, many thanks for this.
facsinating to watch, would love to buy some of those products just to have a go lol. thanks for sharing, from Garry in the UK
Thank you.
"The stripper will leave a burning sensation on your skin"
Words to live by.
Well played, sir.
PPE might be a good option
🤣
7:50 caution as a "spirit based stripper" was used
Lmao
Great restoration job, thanks
Thanks Bob.
It was tricky to strip and polish part of a piano lid inside 30 minutes. My intention was to get across the main processes involved in French Polishing and to show how we can restore old and tired, previously loved furniture.
Many thanks
Simon
The best tutorial ever
This guy is the Gordon Ramsay of wood polish
just your voice made it interesting....being a carpenter for 42 years I found the tutorial particularly interesting......
Thanks Ray.
Like when he said "I'm going to mosque off the sections"
Very cool
your dog barked and my dog heard it and responded LOL
MsTexas G mine too! Currently checking perimeter for intruders!
I didn't hear the bark. I had the volume really low.....but that would explain my dog waking up and needing to be settled down before she started barking at the ceiling and everywhere else at 10pm for no apparent reason!
There are a lot of chancers out there, calling themselves french polishers. This guy knows his onions.
Excellent:
I learned how to French Polish from Master Finisher George Frank in York, PA back in the late 80's. It'll wear you out.
Nice video :D cheers
Ace video!!
After all these years i finally see someone french polishing as described to me 50 years ago. It looks far easier than varnishing...
WHo would have thought! I´m a fan of french polishing :) If you need a 60 year old apprentice...I´m yer man. Thanks for the vid :)
Godamn, in my next life I want to be born French.
French vanilla, French fries, French bread, French kiss, and now I learn about French polish. All the things I love
And the French public toilets ... ?
Don't forget your yellow vest
French tickler, bulldog , connection. onion soup, riviera.
Amazing video! Definitely subbed and will be picking up some of that wax. Little tip... get a boom for that mic. Will greatly help with the audio levels.
Thank You. Yes I think you are definitely right on the mic boom.
I have done french polishing on a few hobby parts (in purpleheart) i wish i knew the makeup of the polish a friend gave me. The wood looked like it had a glass or high polish polyurethane coating on it after only 4/5 coats. It was beautiful but still smelt and felt of wood not polyurethane. My finish of choice for my woodworking.
Many thin coats is always better than fewer thicker, comes out much nicer.
wow that looks amazing
thank you !
When that Meth Spirits hits it "that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen"
Fantastic video, well done, I'm just in the process of doing up an old table around 150 years old.
I was afraid to use mets....
He mentioned mets, what is it?
@@smithdavid5489 methylated spirits
Can't for the life of me, figure out why this is in my recommended, but here I am watching it.
Somewhere in you there is a furniture restorer waiting to be discovered.
@@GilboysRestoration: Love your wry, subtle English humor. Thanks.
French polish no doubt about it.Looked beautiful.
Lol
Wow
Something well worth pointing out: The finishes on these pianos (original French polishes) often stand up to time and wear much better than finishes applied later. I frequently see older antique pianos with beautiful intact finishes while younger finishes have severely deteriorated.
That's because they had the time to take the time. As I wrote in my reply above, for me to finish a 40" round Golden Oak that came to me perfectly sanded and ready to finish, would still take more than a week of doing nothing else but working on it. Having to remove old finishes is a miserable, thankless task, but it must be done.
"It looks like clotted cream - I could eat that " ......Hilarious !
Very clear. Thank you. 🇦🇺👴🏻
It is a very long time ago since I last bought an "aggressive" paint stripper. Generally what's for sale now is anything but "aggressive", it doesn't even sting your flesh or remove the paint on the tin!
Whats for general sale is generally very tame, yes. usually you have to wait 15 mins or so with the stuff you get today. The trade use stripper we use is pretty 'gutsy'.
Very beautiful my friend love the look really want to try to learn the proper way of French polishing not the UA-cam American way lol what I’ve seen here in the state is absolutely nothing like what you are doing and I must say you are definitely doing it right from the books I’ve read lol I love it!!
Thank you. It is a lovely way to finish wood but not so popular these days. Simon
I have an old piano with a ruined French polish finish. I got a quote to have the cabinet redone and the French polish option was several times as costly as the cheapest finish. From this video I can see why - the labour involved in French polish is just silly by modern standards.
Yes. You are absolutely right. It's the main reason why it's a dying trade. It's a shame but an economic truth. 😌
Thanks Gilboys. My boy has recently started writing... you can imagine the next. I've repaired one bit, but I've the wife's grandmother's wardrobe to strip back at some point in the future. May need to sand too. This gives me hope.
Go Luck Anthony. Be aware that often when you strip and sand small areas it look patchy. 🙂
Thanks for that. The intention is to strip the doors and then one side to re-polish. I'm concerned that at one point he has pressed quite hard and may have marked the wood. But he may have just cut through the shellac.
Thank you for this, which is brilliant.
Could this be applied to kitchen tables?
It could, but it would not be a good idea. This finish is meant to be used gently, and not often touched. An extreme mistake would be to set a wet glass on the surface, or a cold glass that will collect condensation.
If you want a beautiful table surface that will last, try sanding it to 1000 grit and then applying Minwax Polycrilic, or some other decent acrylic surface sealer or a polyurethane sealer. Then start with 1000 grit and wet sand up to 12000 grit micro mesh before you apply meguiar's plast-x (vehicle plastic parts polishing compound) and buff it to a mirror gloss.
Keep in mind that this kind of finish is not used on a musical instrument for good reason.... it can affect the ability for the wood to "breath" or adjust it's moisture content (by sealing it in or out), changing the tonal quality of the wood. This is undesirable, though the instrument would indeed LOOK very pretty.
Great video, thank you...just wondering if I could apply French polish over faux painted effects?
Hi Diana, Yes I would have thought it would work very well although I would be mindful of how much and which french polish you use. I would suggest sticking with the special pale or transparent. Other cuts of polish may change the overall colour of your finish if applied to heavily.
what a beautiful rosewood piano lid, do you still have the entire piano, would be beautiful re-done.