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Hi All,
Thanks in advance for your thoughtful comments. I am in the process of building a new flamenco guitar. This time I am doing a blanca.
German spruce top, Spanish cypress B&S. Now that I finally put a beautiful finish on my last guitar, a negra sprayed with nitro, I am choosing to french polish the blanca. It took about 3 tries to get the last one right but I did not mind. As I usually buy my supplies from LMI, I was hoping someone could recommend which shellac flakes to purchase from same. I want the blanca to have a traditional french polish flamenco finish. I would guess that the light blonde flakes are appropriate but do not hesitate to straighten me out. Thanks again.
Johnny Rotten a.k.a..John Nowicki

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John Nowicki

John-
As a novice at French Polishing myself, I've found that the lighter shellacs are much easier to use as uneven application doesn't 'show' as quickly.
So whatever the tradition, I'd advise using very light shellac- at least until you get some 'thickness' built.

BTW, there have been some other (cheaper?) shellac suppliers recommended here at OLF, though LMI is a reliable supplier of 'just about everything' for building.

Cheers
John

Thanks John,
Sounds like good advice. I have been watching a ton of videos on you tube about french polish. Your comment was confirmed many times. One thing that I noticed, alot of luthiers have their own french polish methods; some use no oil, some use cheesecloth wrapped around an eraser in lieu of a muneca; whatever works. I am going for the lemon-amber look so I will start with blonde transparent shellac and work my way darker until I get where I want colorwise.Thanks again...
John

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John Nowicki

You can get shellac flakes in a wide variety of shades from Jeff Jewitt. His business is called Homestead Finishing Products.

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Kevin Mason
Mason Guitars and Ukuleles on Facebook
http://masonguitars.net

If done in the traditional Muneca application with regular spiriting off manner it is pretty difficult to build your film uneven. There should not be any noticeable color variance. That said how you work can make a difference. This is one of the reasons I dislike sanding the film to achieve a level film. One Body session followed by one spiriting off session will build a level film as you go. It really should make no difference as to what tent of shellac you use as long as you work in an even application method and load the muneca consistently. Methods where the freshly allied load is the shellac being laid down are more susceptible to uneven build ups. The muneca works differently than most think. The new load is really only melting the residual shellac in the inner pad and allowing it to wick through the outer pad. A lot of folks think the new load is the shellac being laid down so they tend to work far too wet. This can lead uneven build up and other problems. The process is a much drier process then you may think. the shellac that is being applied should go on much like past wax if it is wetter than that your build up has a chance to pool thicker in some areas.

Keep a piece of scrapwood next to your guitar. Whenever you charge the pad, polish this first to cut the excess shellac. When the pad glides with no friction, it's ready for the guitar. If it starts to stick, you're polishing soft shellac (and probably removing it). Take a break for an hour to let the film harden. No need to oil the pad, no need to spirit off.

I cheat. I lay on two or three wet coats of 3 lb. Next day, I wet sand with naptha and 600
until the surface looks flat. I mix up a small jar of equal parts 3 lb and alcohol (don't know the exact cut, don't care), then pour a bit into a pad made from a square of old cotton sheet stuffed with half of a wool sock. Twist the corners to squeeze out the shellac, do a test polish on the scrap, and go to work. Doesn't take long to bring that wet sanded surface up to a mile deep mirror gloss. No need for pumice, no need for oil, and again, no need for spiriting off.

Store the pad in a jar. If well used, you only need a few drops of alcohol to recharge it.

Presently I'm using the LMI AC2 shellac. It's a good combination of dark enough to dry hard but light enough to easily control the color especially on a light European spruce top.
I've used the darker types to polish cypress in the past for a more "antique" look but you really have to be using a very consistant technique to maintain even color.
Cypress in another way is a dream to polish over rosewood in that it requires no filling and you can develop a very nice surface in a fraction of the time. I can see the reason why cypress guitars (beyond the cheap cost of the wood itself) were usually the least expensive of a maker's offerings.