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hello everyone, I'm a lurker comming out of the shadows for some advice. I'm looking forword to Michael Payne's class in Denver and have been throwing myself at french polishing lately.
1) Anybody have a favorite method for getting into the corner of the fingerboard edge/top? I just replaced the fingerboard on a french polished classical and my pad is just too round to get all the way in there, no matter how small and pointy I try to make it. Anything that would work for masking the top? shaped felt blocks I'v heard mentioned, but not the specifics.
2) I thought I'd upgrade from my old grey wool sock to the discussed "roving", came home from my local knitting shop, popped the fluff into my pad, gave it a good dunk to prime it and the following day started in (nice and bouncy!). Something was up. It felt like there was pumice in the mix or I had a flannel cover and fibers were flowing out! I put a new piece in a glass of water and milky funk was in there. It rinsed right out. Should I wash this stuff with detergent or alcohol first? anyone have this issue?

As far as your first question I have the same trouble.

On question number 2, if you are using recently processed wool there is a good chance that the lanolin naturally produced by the animal is still in the roving. It must be washed if this is the case. Sheep are pretty dirty and it takes a lot of work to clean up their wool after shearing. The lanolin will make your hands nice and soft however.

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Yeah, you really have to wash that wool pretty well.

Getting into corners is hard. I use a tiny little flat muneca that I made just for that. It's just a single piece of "sweater wool" folded over, prepared normally, which I kind of fold into a corner of the cloth I'm using. I hold the wad of cloth in my hand, and position my forefinger on the little point I've created, put 1 drop of shellac and 1 drop of alcohol, tap on a paper towel, tap on the back of my hand, and work the corners around the neck and the bridge. It seems to work pretty well. Occasionally, I'll add a tiny amount of Walnut oil, but mostly not.

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Waddy

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Being a steel sting builder I never have the neck and bridge glued up at the time I FP. that said a classical build or a FP repair on any guitar does require that you get into tight corners. The nethod I use on repairs is to shale the muneca into a triangle. but I have had a good bit of practice at this. Collin uses a felt inner pad cut to the shape of a triangle and this makes good sence to me. thought I have not used it. it is just a case of saturating the edge with shellac and allowing it to harden a bit and using it just like any inner pad. It will be firmer but that is not a problem.

Thanks for the specifics. You guys are quick!

Look forward to seeing you in May