French Polish: Spit Coating…

Spit coating is the initial step to putting on a French Polish finish.  I started the process on my Dad’s ukulele today, after doing a test sample just to get the feel for how shellac goes on to an instrument.  For this process, I just used some folded over cheesecloth and a little elbow grease to put on three initial coats (called spit coats) to provide a base for the French Polish finish.  One important point that I found was to do the bindings and purflings first, then cover the “field” (or large areas of wood) second using long vertical swipes along the grain.  The reason for this is to prevent the cocobolo wood coloring from bleeding over into the lighter wood of the body.  The alcohol that dissolves the shellac can pick up some of the coloration of the wood as it is applied, and if you have anywhere with white or different colored wood you can transfer this color to other parts of the instrument.  This looks bad, so should be avoided.

Some interesting things about applying a shellac finish:

• It’s sticky, but dries to the touch almost immediately.
• High-strength alcohol (in my case Everclear) works to both clean up the pipettes and my fingers after applying the finish.
• The wood looks 3D almost immediately, and it seems this only heightens as the shellac gets applied further because the finish will refract more light.
• Natural wood binding is where it’s at… looks GOOD already.

Now I just have to order some pumice powder and I’ll be ready to fill the pores and grain.  Once that process is complete, it’ll be time to do the 30 (or so) bodying sessions to build up the finish.  Good times!