Types And Mixes Of French PolishThe shellac/meths mix includes gums like arabic and copal, plus drying and hardening agents, to make the polish as it is sold. The off-the-shelf product is likely to be a ’31b cut’ – in other words, 1.3kg (31b) of shellac dissolved in 51 (1 gal.) of methylated spirits. The thicker ’51b cut’, the other basic British mix, is for brushing, and is often sold as ‘brush polish’. It is worth re¬membering these proportions when you are thinning or mixing different polishes for colouring or sealing.French polishes come in a handful of basic varieties, according to the purity of the shellac; all can be intermixed, and both pigments and the clearer spirit aniline dyes can be used to tint them. Be careful, however, if a polish you buy is obviously a manufactur-er’s ‘special’; it might have synthetic ingredients which demand special mixers. Always ask.Button polish, so called because the shellac comes in little cakes or buttons, is brownish with a yellow tinge. Brown or ‘orange’ polish is a standard, made from orange shellac, and commonly known as just ‘polish’. It is usually used for mahogany, as is garnet polish – a red- rather than a yellow-brown which gives clarity and warmth to mahogany that brown and button polish lack. White polish is milky in appearance and is made from acid-bleached shellac, which has a very limited shelf-life – two years at the absolute outside. It darkens the light woods on which it is used only slightly; there is no way of telling if it has deteriorated until you find it has not hardened after application, so buy only as much as you can predict you’ll use. Transparent white is bleached twice, is clearer still than white polish, and is especially suitable for marquetry and inlays where no colour darkening at all is desirable.You can buy ready-coloured polishes like red and black, and other proprietary makes may include acid or melamine hardeners for tables or bar-tops, or even exterior use. They are usually thicker, and formulated for application with a brush.A ’21b cut’ of white or transparent white polish is generally used as a sealing coat to protect stain from bleeding, or just to limit the absorbency of the wood before final finishing. Varnish can be put over shellac, but never for outside use; cellulose and the synthetic lacquers, which have their own ‘sanding sealers’, will not ‘take’ over shellac.
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Yes, I did need more nail varnish, ok!