French polish durability? (Full Version)

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britguy -> French polish durability? (Aug. 31 2012 14:01:32)

Been following the threads of Anders post on French Polishng techniques, etc. with great interest.

I have a question for you professional builders:
How durable should an FP finish be (within reason), and what factors might affect this?

Reasons: I have a BRZ negra from a well-established builder (not on this forum) that's not even two years old and already looks like its had at least ten years of hard usage.

I've always taken good care of my guitars; regular cleaning, polishing, don't leave them lying around, etc. But this instrument shows all kinds of minute scratches, rough patches, looks almost like bare wood in some areas? This is mostly on the back and sides. I have much older guitars that show much less signs of reasonable wear.

I'm wondering if this lack of durability could be due to:
A: - The finishing technique, (skills of the craftsman);
B: - The quality of the polish materials,
C: - Something inherent in the wood itself,

or maybe other factors a non-luthier would not be aware of?

And, of course, my final question would be; can anything (short of stripping and re-finishing) be done to restore or improve the finish on this instrument?



Anders Eliasson -> RE: French polish durability? (Aug. 31 2012 15:18:58)

French polish is easily redone by one who knows. Its not what I would call a refinish, but simply a very light sanding and a few sessions of french polish. That was standard procedure in the good old days in Spain, where it was easy to find a local polisher. deep scratches reaching the wood are more or less impossible to hide, but lighter ones yes and the shine will be back. In the good ole days, guitars were often finished very fast with FP and with a relatively thin layer of FP, thinking that the owner(s) would have it touched up later on.

Besides that, scratches dont happen themselves.[8D]



Dave K -> RE: French polish durability? (Sep. 1 2012 5:27:14)

My first 'good' flamenco guitar, built and purchased Jan. 1965 was laquered. To this day, other than the numerous 'juerga' dings, still looks like new.

A french polished instrument, given the same care and treatment, would (Because of my lack of maintenance) look pretty forlorn by now. I have never cleaned it with anything other than a soft cloth, occasionaly dampened with a bit of water (Don't do this to a french polished guitar!) to remove grime. The strings have been at or close to 'normal' tension (except for changing them) for all these years. It still sounds and plays great. The guitar is a lightly built peghead blanca, built by Jose Oribé.

I believe José has since bowed to popular opinion/demand and is currently french polishing his guitars, but I'll keep my laquered one! That being said, I'll have to admit I live in Northern California where God is extra good to guitars...

French polished guitars are beautiful but do require very special attention to keep them looking that way...

Cheers, (I got this from Ron)
Dave



Anders Eliasson -> RE: French polish durability? (Sep. 1 2012 7:12:01)

quote:

French polished guitars are beautiful but do require very special attention to keep them looking that way...


Taste is personal and my taste is not a freshly French Polished guitar that shines and shine and shines. I like when you can see its been repolished, it has a few dings, the overall look is satin and not gloss. Some areas are matte and all in all the guitar looks like its been used.
If thats an acceptable look, then FP is very easy to deal with. And I find that worn FP guitars that has been taken care of look a lot better than worn lacquered guitars.



Dave K -> RE: French polish durability? (Sep. 2 2012 2:26:17)

I think you're right Anders, it's just a mater of personal taste. This past week I had the good fortune to do a workshop with Juan del Gastor, and he was kind enough to let me check out and play just a bit his (French polished) '74 Conde Hermanos - it not only played great, it had this beautiful patina that you just don't get with a laquered guitar.
I still love my laquered old Oribé, but I can definitely see how you can come to love the patina of an old french polished guitar.

Cheers,
Dave



Jeff Highland -> RE: French polish durability? (Sep. 4 2012 5:28:05)

I am using Hard Shellac for the first time on my current build.
It crosslinks over the 1st week to become significantly harder and more resistant to solvents.
Some early users got burned with the initial release which did not have a plasticiser and crazed badly. I have stuck with regular shellac till now. but the problems seem to be gone.
Anyhow, I just started applying it to my EIR/ engelmann this morning seems to be building nicely.



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