Les Palt (LP-1SSL)

[stan]

nice finish Oz, very natural look on the timber

[wokkaboy]

looking great Oz, keep applying the coats and this will look real nice

[ozbird]

I've switched from applying the shellac with a foam brush to using a traditional French polishing "rubber" due to tiny bubbles in the finish.

Some forum posts suggest they may be due to warmer temperatures - the shellac dries quicker than the alcohol can evaporate. Rubbing back the finish with steel wool and reapplying didn't help at all.

Hand rubbing shellac is much slower than brushing, but seems to help in cutting back and filling the bubbles, slowly. We'll see.

[stan]

will take a while, but you can get great results. i have a table at home i french polished, 100 coats, on blackwood, looks great

[ozbird]

"100 coats"?! *weeps*

[stan]

on a table top it only took a weekend, by the time you get to the end of the first coat (doing small circles), then rub back, you are just about ready to start again, it drys quite fast

[Andy40]

beautiful finish

[ozbird]

The closer I get to an awesome shellac finish, the worse the problems become. Dafuq?!

Not happy.

[stan]

what issues mate, and perhaps some pics will help

[ozbird]

Thanks, Stan - and apologies for venting.

The attached photo isn't great (it's very "kind") - but still shows the worst of the bubbles problem.

There are lots of tiny bubbles on the top and bottom "planks". The bubbles are most obvious closest to the "flash"; but extend across the upper and lower "planks".

The middle "plank" has a different (boring) cut. It was unaffected by tiny bubbles - but the large blisters are much worse.