A Polished Performance

French polishing is the name given to the process of coating wood with a solution of shellac dissolved in alcohol, using a ‘rubber’ made from a rag and cotton wool instead of a brush.french polished guitar The alcohol evaporates, leaving shellac deposited upon the wood. When applied correctly, it produces possibly the finest looking finish for furniture.
Shellac was first introduced into Europe in about the 16th century, but the term ‘French polish’ was not used until about 1820, when the process was developed by a French cabinet maker.

Basic Materials

Shellac is an encrustation surrounding an insect known as Laccifer lacca, which is a parasite living in certain trees in India and other Eastern countries.The insect is 2mm long and has a life cycle of six months.
french polish The shellac is gathered by cutting the infected twigs from the trees, scraping it off, washing and, in the pre-mechanised days, it was extracted through canvas tubes heated over a fire.

The initial shellac comes through clean and drops of about 12cm form on a cold stone, which helps them to set.

This is known as button lac from which button polish is made.

The next stage of extraction is in the form of a thin sheet, which is crushed into flakes when it’s cold.

These flakes are then used to make French polish.

Modern processing plants now exist for producing shellac similar to the hand-made varieties.

In India today, a full ‘hand’ industry exists of ‘pulling’ the soft sheets into even thickness, allowing them to dry and breaking into flakes.

Blonde or bleached shellac has some of the colour removed with chlorine and is used on the lighter woods.

The type of shellac used can vary considerably in colour.