Caring for French Polish Instruments

[Karen P]

I have a Lachenal rosewood concertina which received a French polish finish approximately 5 years ago by David Robertson.  I do keep the wood clean with a barely damp soft cloth but lately I’ve been wondering if I should be doing anything else to preserve and protect the finish?  Any advice would be appreciated.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

I would have thought that is all you really need to do, I would only really bother about the cleaning once a year personally but it's up to you. If the cloth is sort of only just barely damp it should not do any harm. 

 

I think that sort of lacquer is very long lived just be careful of knocking it on things and it helps to have finger nails cut short so they don't slowly wear away the lacquer just above the buttons.

 

This picture shows what I mean by fingernail wear around buttons.

https://share.google/bQJd8XkF97gpcdngu

[RAc]

well, the one piece of advice that comes to mind is never to use any cleaner on french polish that has alcohol in it (apologies, probably too trivial to mention).

 

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

If the finish seems reasonable then leave well alone - any slight tarnish [if not serious] is part of the character and patina of a wooden surface, particularly an older timber finish.

A dry [ not damp] pure cotton cloth [ or microfibre] just dusted over the surface should be more than enough to keep most greasy marks away. Breathe over the surface [ your breath] and then buff over  afterwards will also help.

[Wally Carroll]

French polish looks great when first applied but is not very durable for items that come in contact with hands.  If your hands sweat when you play (as mine do) it will be worse.  I suspect anglos suffer even more because of the constant contact with the hand bar.  That being said, you could try putting a wax coating on it to keep the moisture off.  There are a bunch of woodworking dark waxes out there that you can use.  Just make sure if it is a paste wax that you squeeze out any globs of it so that it is all liquified before applying or you will get these chunks in your fretwork. 

[Alex West]

Karen

 

A very light beeswax is what I use; otherwise as Jake has said, try to avoid knocks and scratches.  If the French polish is very old (ie not in your case), you can use a burnishing cream from Liberon (or similar).

 

Alex West

[Peter Smith]

I have found 'Super Nicko' does an excellent job in cleaning up old & dirty french-polished concertina cases. It gives them a brilliant shine.

I think there is a thread about this elsewhere on concertina.net.

Peter

[wschruba]

I will see if I can unearth my Reblitz book on piano restoration--there is a blurb in there about not only cleaning a shellac-based finish (old pianos were available shellac'ed, french polished, or lacquered), but interventions that could be done to stabilize a crazing finish.  If memory serves, one can use a dilute solution of alcohol, shellac of the same colour, and [something else?] to wipe the surface and intentionally melt the topmost layer.

 

Wax is a useful thing if french polish is to be handled.  You can even make your own from shellac wax and mineral spirits--nothing more durable than the base wax itself--on a hot-plate if you wish to be artisanal.  I do not know about shipping out of the USA anymore, but there is an excellent vendor, https://www.shellac.net/Shellac_ordering_list.html, who sells everything one would need to apply or service a shellac-based finish.  They are a distributor of Renaissance products, including the waxes, though I find it to be quite a bit more fragile than traditional hard-paste waxes...good for conservation, but not as good for handling.  Butches (now Permakote) Bowling Alley Wax is better for handling.  He sells actual shellac sticks from Merit, too, which is nice for restoration work (but also works great for attaching things with a melted blob of shellac).  I have used both Kusmi button lacs, as well as purchasing several shades of de-waxed shellac for repairing small spot finishes.

 

I wax the soles of my planes with Renaissance wax.  It doesn't stain the woods that it is used on, and they glide smooth as silk.

[Peter Laban]

12 hours ago, wschruba said:

Renaissance wax

I was thinking of that as well, works great on wood and metal.

[Karen P]

Thanks for all the information, everyone.  I do have Renaissance wax handy so I think I will try it on an inconspicuous spot.