My pleasure ,I think that little book is great for all levels of
woodworking, in my opinion it certainly contributes to the craft more than
most these days do, and you cannot beat the price .

As far as french polishing chairs it is not the easiest thing to do
especially from scratch .my procedure is to sand the crap out of them first
then stain using a NGR stain then polish pad the polish in . make the pad
cone shaped and use the nose to get into the tight spots .You will need a
pretty damp almost wet rubber to get into any carved detail and you will
also need to punch it into the carved detail pretty forcefully . give the
polish time to dry before hitting the area again when yo get into a corner
use a circular motion never stopping in one spot ,the addition of a small
drop of lindseed oil will help also to lube he rubber, but use it sparingly
if not you will end up with smears in the finish . To et rid of these smears
essentially you will need to pad them out with straight alcohol. Always
remember practice makes perfect and very few of us are there yet, but the
rewards are worth striving for....regards mjh


"Ken Muldrew" wrote in message
...
"Mike Hide" wrote:

[great stuff on finishing wood that isn't necessarily flat]

Thanks for that. I always thought that French polish wouldn't work
well on carved surfaces because it would be hard to avoid stopping in
places. The one carved chair I have made I brushed on shellac and
rubbed it out with a 3M grey pad + rottenstone. I wasn't really happy
with the finish (nor with the carving) but less discriminating folks
seem to like the chair (good design, probably).

BTW, I took your advice from last year and purchased "Fine Furniture
for the Amateur Cabinetmaker" by Andy Marlow. I've just about finished
with the practice projects. It's a great book and a very enjoyable way
to work wood. Thanks for the recommendation.

Ken Muldrew

(remove all letters after y in the alphabet)