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LuthierSupplier
PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:31 pm 
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First name: Tracy
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With all this talk about how easy shellac/french polish is to repair, I'm just wondering if anyone out there has done a tutorial on how to actually do a repair to shellac. Specifically, I'd love to see how a big ding gets fixed step by step. This would be a good time for all you Robbie O'Brien French polishers to ding one of your test boards and try to repair it. Maybe Robbie, or you repair guru's can weigh in here. I'd love to see what you got!

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WaddyThomson
PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:59 pm 
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I have a place on the neck of my first that needs fixing, and finally figured out after just about ruining the whole thing, that repair is a little more tedious than I thought. You can't keep going over small places, or they'll gum up. You have to do a few passes, and let it sit a while, then come back. Then it has time to dry some before you make another few strokes over the same place. It seems to take forever to get a build, but it does work. I don't know about dings and such.

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Jim Kirby
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:11 am 
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Ron Fernandez does a repair on his DVD, but it is more the type of repair where the finish has been damaged by abrasion over a larger area. How to do repair of dings is a good question.

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Robbie O'Brien
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:54 pm 
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There are a couple types of fixes I do on FP finishes. The first one is if you have wear due to normal playing like on a neck Here I just lightly sand and then do some french polishing until the finish is repaired. Another type is when you have some scratches in the finish. Here I just sand back to remove the scratch, which is some cases can go all the way to the wood. Then I start the Fp process again. Still another type of repair I do is one I recently showed Bob Benedetto. He loved it. We were working on some maple sample boards and had a great shine going on after only about a half hour. The board had a small knot in it and Mr. Benedetto asked about how to repair it. I used a small dropped of thin viscosity CA glue applied with a dental pick to fill the void in the area. After a few minutes I leveled it with a razer blade, lightly sanded and then continued with the FP. It was an invisible repair. This trick also works well for leveling fingernail marks around soundholes onclassical guitars that have a FP finish.
I am sure Michael Payne has a few tricks in his repertoire he could share with us.
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John Hale
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:12 pm 
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I'm positive Colin won't mind me sharing this as it's a pm he sent me worked great, though is only damage to the finish not dents, but I'm sure they could be steamed out then repaired

Colin S wrote:
Rule 1. NEVER PUT PUMICE DIRECTLY ONTO THE GUITAR! Sorry to shout but I wanted to be sure you got the message.

OK, now that is out of the way I'll quickly go through the process, by the way this is the same way you can repair scratches on French polish.

What we want is some fresh shellac on the guitar to work with, so give the back (I think that's what you wanted to fill?) a couple of bodying sessions and allow to dry for about an hour or so. Now this is going to be the only circumstance where you add both shellac and pumice to the muneca (pad)**, so first sprinkle a little of the pumice onto a sheet of paper, next charge your muneca with shellac and alcohol then distribute it into the pad and blot onto some paper (a different bit) to check that it is properly loaded, remember the water mark test, with your finger, smear a little oil onto the face of the muneca. When that is done touch the pad onto the pumice on the paper so that a little of the pumice sticks to it. Then, add a drop of alcohol to the face of the muneca and gently rub with a finger until you see the pumice clear, or go transparent. When that has happened, gently rub the area with the voids, in a circular pattern, changing clockwise/anticlockwise. Reloading the muneca as needed. The part you are filling will dull down, but the voids should start to fill with the shellac that you are abrading and incorporating into the voids. Don't over do it in one go, you may need 2 or 3 session to get a good fill. After evreything has been filled, level the back with 1200 wet and dry lubricated with the oil, then give it one more bodying session to even out the finish and then you can glaze and spirit off and the job is done. Leave for a few days and buff with swirl remover or whatever is your fancy.

Let me know if this needs any clarification.

Sorry about the typos in the first draft, typing with one hand is a pain.

Colin

** When pore filling with pumice you only use alcohol in the muneca and use the shellac from the spit coat on the guitar.

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Michael Dale Payne
PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 5:06 pm 
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there is really no differance in a FP repair than a new FP except the amount of the surface to be repaired. I will warn the trying to body a small are leads to most of the build up happening at the edges of the repair. So sand out an repar a larger area. and spirit-off after each session has set to touch dry.
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