Hi,
Very well done indeed John in making and finishing the PYE cabinet. My chum David (Yorkie) sent me the link to "you tube" a while ago and I enjoyed the first two episodes of your cabinet project and finally this afternoon re-watched these together with the remainder.
I was particularly impressed with your method of producing the PYE logo which looks the part and will never be scratched off. Splendid success.
Joe (The Pil) mentioned in another thread that in simplest terms three coats of brush applied shellac and flatted using wet or dry abrasive paper would give a decent finish. Amazing results can be achieved by doing this very thing and believe me it is so easy where a high gloss French polished finish is not required.
I recently restored a wooden clock case for my chum Mike and spent quite a while French polishing the main case but I thought the mirror gloss to be way over the top as it looked garish and out of place in this situation.
I've tried using wire wool previously to dull or knock the gloss off leaving a nice matt finish but always without success; the wire wool I found to be unpredictable leaving various depth scratches in the finish even though it was used with paste wax as a lubricant.
I needed to do something and at first considered flatting using 1000 grit abrasive paper lubricated with talcum powder but then decided to experiment with wire wool once again.
This time I used Liquid Paraffin as a lubricant; what a difference this now made and I was delighted with the finish which now looked perfect. I still had the clock door to re-finish so I returned the bare cabinet to Mike to get it out of the way so that I could free up bench space to concentrate on the door.
At this point I was expecting a lot of grief in trying to use the polishing rubber once the brush coats of shellac had been applied because of the joints etc in the door and also I didn't want to try to remove the glass as it was over 100 years old so had masked the glass off ready.
Not wanting a mirror finish I decided to simply try brushing a good thickness of shellac onto the door then once allowed to dry to go over with the wire wool (0000 grade) and liquid paraffin. It worked a treat and the finish was once again delightful to look at and stroke with my fingers. I did try my best to get the brush coats of shellac on as evenly as possible and can highly recommend this method to anyone as an alternative to using Danish Oil. As with any flatting of a finish much care is needed not to cut through the finish to bare timber at corners and edges. I hope the pictures are interesting. This clock case was made entirely of softwood which I thought most unusual and the softwood had been veneered in walnut veneer. The top front panel was a mess so was replaced with a piece of vintage plywood and the cabinet re-veneered using traditional hot hide glue. Mike was delighted with the result and I heaved a sigh of relief.
Kind regards, Col.
Very well done indeed John in making and finishing the PYE cabinet. My chum David (Yorkie) sent me the link to "you tube" a while ago and I enjoyed the first two episodes of your cabinet project and finally this afternoon re-watched these together with the remainder.
I was particularly impressed with your method of producing the PYE logo which looks the part and will never be scratched off. Splendid success.
Joe (The Pil) mentioned in another thread that in simplest terms three coats of brush applied shellac and flatted using wet or dry abrasive paper would give a decent finish. Amazing results can be achieved by doing this very thing and believe me it is so easy where a high gloss French polished finish is not required.
I recently restored a wooden clock case for my chum Mike and spent quite a while French polishing the main case but I thought the mirror gloss to be way over the top as it looked garish and out of place in this situation.
I've tried using wire wool previously to dull or knock the gloss off leaving a nice matt finish but always without success; the wire wool I found to be unpredictable leaving various depth scratches in the finish even though it was used with paste wax as a lubricant.
I needed to do something and at first considered flatting using 1000 grit abrasive paper lubricated with talcum powder but then decided to experiment with wire wool once again.
This time I used Liquid Paraffin as a lubricant; what a difference this now made and I was delighted with the finish which now looked perfect. I still had the clock door to re-finish so I returned the bare cabinet to Mike to get it out of the way so that I could free up bench space to concentrate on the door.
At this point I was expecting a lot of grief in trying to use the polishing rubber once the brush coats of shellac had been applied because of the joints etc in the door and also I didn't want to try to remove the glass as it was over 100 years old so had masked the glass off ready.
Not wanting a mirror finish I decided to simply try brushing a good thickness of shellac onto the door then once allowed to dry to go over with the wire wool (0000 grade) and liquid paraffin. It worked a treat and the finish was once again delightful to look at and stroke with my fingers. I did try my best to get the brush coats of shellac on as evenly as possible and can highly recommend this method to anyone as an alternative to using Danish Oil. As with any flatting of a finish much care is needed not to cut through the finish to bare timber at corners and edges. I hope the pictures are interesting. This clock case was made entirely of softwood which I thought most unusual and the softwood had been veneered in walnut veneer. The top front panel was a mess so was replaced with a piece of vintage plywood and the cabinet re-veneered using traditional hot hide glue. Mike was delighted with the result and I heaved a sigh of relief.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
