I have been
wondering what to blog about, my father passed away recently after a short
illness. It was inevitable at some point, but the sense of loss is very great.
Sorting through
his belongings, I found an article he wrote about French Polish. Who better to
provide a guest blog than
Alan De Sillery Wilson CChem FRSC
29 December 1925 – 09 September 2013
Read it – you
might learn something. It will be particularly interesting for people who grew
up believing the French polisher would be able to save the piece of furniture a
young man damaged at a house party whilst his parents were away…he would never
have done it in time (yellow pages ad c.1989). I’d always had my doubts.
French Polish
By Alan Wilson
I’m unsure of the date
A handsome piece of old furniture attracts by its
design and style. The mind is intrigued by the skill involved in its
construction. The eye is delighted by the beauty of its timber and veneer and
one's hand is drawn to caress the quality of its finish. The patina and beauty
will have been brought to perfection by the art in application used by an old
time craftsman using French Polish.
The modern craftsman seeking to achieve the same
results turns again to these old materials and methods, scorning the ubiquitous
spray gun. What then is this magical material? The name is odd as it is known
in France as English Polish. It consists of two ingredients, a resin called
shellac and industrial methylated spirits and pure alcohol.
Shellac the basic resin comes form India and
neighboring areas. It is an exudation of the parasitic lac insect, which feeds
on special host trees. The word lac means one hundred thousand and is an
indication of the vast number of little workers needed to produce this special
resin. The word lac now gives us the modern term lacquer, used to describe many
wood finishes. The basic resin is stripped from the trees and, being
thermoplastic, is melted then filtered.
Various types are received in this country of which
orange, button and garnet are examples. Processed grades such as white
(obtained by bleaching) and transparent where the natural wax has been filtered
out are also available.
Orange shellac is used to make the traditional French
Polish and is available in flake form. Button shellac, used in button polish, was
originally supplied as pats of resin about three inches wide and about one
eighth thick. Now it too comes in flake form. Both French and button polish are
cloudy due to the natural wax present in the resin. Garnet shellac, as the name suggests, is a very deep
colour and gives a very hard finish.
The polish made by dissolving the resin in the meths
is applied by the craftsmen using a specially made pad or fad. This is
constructed using about a nine inch square piece of chamois leather or cotton
drill that has been washed many times. Well-laundered laboratory coats were
much sought after for this purpose. A piece of pear-shaped wadding is placed in
the center and the two sides of the leather folded diagonally over it to form a
mouse-like shape. The whole is soaked in the polish with the loose ends twisted
to squeeze the excess liquid out of the pad as required.
The pad was then
evenly worked over the surface of the piece of furniture, pressure being
exerted to bring out more liquid to keep the surface wet. When the entire panel
had been adequately covered it was left to dry for at least 24 hours. This
operation was then repeated until a good solid coat had been applied. Best
results were obtained using a steady circular motion. Finally the fad was used
with a very dilute polish or even just meths to even out the final finish.
There are, of course, many tricks of the trade used by
individual polishers. The most common is to add about 1-2% linseed oil to the
polish to act as a lubricant. Alternatively the end of the fad is occasionally
dipped into the oil for the same purpose during the application.
The result after many days work was a piece of
furniture with a superb finish where the where the natural beauty of the timber
had been developed to the full.
Dad was a Fellow of
the Royal Society of Chemistry from 1956. He worked as a paint chemist most of
his life he did a fair amount of research into ‘green’ waxes and polishes.
He lived a full, long life and enjoyed the occasional whiskey.
What better way to catch up with old favourite bits of Chatsworth than by dim lighting. Chatsworth at night, by fake candlelight to be exact. The luminaire event was all rather enchanting. The atmosphere was set when we drove up at 7 pm, in the cold and dark and were greeted by the blue frontage - pretty stunning. Teenager proclaims “well, I wont be wanting an ice cream!” 
We saw pots and paintings, flooring and ceilings, sculptures and trinkets, all carefully lit with candlelight. Very atmospheric, giving the idea of what it must have looked like before electricity. The main star of the show, however, was the gardens. The building looked stunning and we liked the lit pathways to take you along the recommended route through the gardens.
