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I am getting an annoying problem on my first french polish attempts.
After each session when the shellack layer dries out there always will remain some white-yellowish residues on the rosewood parts of the guitar. I didnt manage to figure out exactly why this happens. I can clean that off with alcohol but it seems that this way I always take away the shellack on the bindngs and so they never will build up sufficient schellack body there.
I tried to take less or more of either component (schellack, parrafin oil, alcohol), but for the moment I cant find a way around it. Do you have any idea what I am doing wrong ?
thanks a lot
best regards Marinus
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RE: residues on rosewood bindings at... (in reply to suniram)
Interesting. Do those areas feel rough to the touch? When do the cloudy spots appear? Did you use any kind of pore filler on the Rosewood parts of the guitar?
RE: residues on rosewood bindings at... (in reply to suniram)
At first I thought about pumice rests from the porefilling. But it doesnt look like that. Not sure, but did you make a good first coat without oil? Dont get oil into the wood. You could try polishing that part without oil and see if that helps. If it does, you can most probably polish above it with oil.
RE: residues on rosewood bindings at... (in reply to suniram)
I think you may have used oil to early, going by what you wrote. Acetone is good at cleaning oil out of wood, but that would be a tedious and delicate operation. Natural colour will bleed from the rosewood, and you don't want it contaminating your purflings or soundboard. Do you have this happening all over the back and sides? Another thing, did your shellac flakes dissolve easily? What does it look like? Maybe it is not de-waxed.
RE: residues on rosewood bindings at... (in reply to suniram)
This spots appear maybe half an hour after finishing a session with the pad. somtimes its quite dense and feels rather rough to the touch, a bit like little salt cristalls. And I get it actually all over the dark wood parts: rosewood bindings, on the edge of the ebony fingerboard and on the cedar neck and head.
I can almost exclude that oil got onto the wood because I did give it a good coat without oil before. As far as I can judge (because of lacking possibility of comparing) the shellack dissolved well. I bought and mixed it just recently.
But I indeed used pumice to fill the rosewood and the cedar, and I easily might have abused a bit with it...so this might be the reaon. What makes me wonder however is that on the fingerbord and the soundboard itself I didnt use pumice. But maybe it gets stuck to the pad and left there as well....no idea
Anyway in the last sessions I gave it today it seemed to happen a bit less. And I actually didnt change anything important. will see how the guitar looks tomorrow...
RE: residues on rosewood bindings at... (in reply to suniram)
Well, if its pumice rests, then you can feel it before you apply the shellack with the pad. Give it a layer more and sand it all away. Then start with a new groundcoat or washcoat of shellack.
RE: residues on rosewood bindings at... (in reply to suniram)
I gave the guitar some polishing sessions today and the residues at least do not appear all the time anymore. Its getting clearly better. So if its pumice it seems to get washed out little by little.
The thing I dont understand however is why I didnt get this deposits on applying the first coats of shellack with the brush. Wouldnt one expect that on the first layers dierectly upon the porefilled wood this would appear much more? But it didnt..only since I use the pad..
So for the moment I will keep going. When it appears I wash it away and thats it. The shellack body is building up quite good now.
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