Official Luthiers Forum!

I french polished my first (and only so far) guitar, I had a lot of trouble building up enough of a finish. In hindsight I put this down to too wet a muneca, I was disolving shellac off the guitar as fast as I was piutting it down, or so my thinking went. At the time, I was searching for a local supplier of Ubeaut hard shellac, but didn't find any so I just went ahead and used the (supposedly) high quality shellac that the bloke at the woodworkers supply said was about the best available.

A few weeks after I finished the guitar, I ended up finding some hard shellac and bought a bottle (it's premixed). Anyway, I was waiting for some glue to dry on the weekend, and needing to kill some time, I got the bottle out, and the muneca I used on my guitar - I'd kept it in a film canister, so it was good to go. I wanted to see how a Tasmanian myrtle back and side set I have was going to look under this french polish, and I happened to have a piece of veneer of the same stuff. so I rubbed some on, no surface prep, didn't even bother to sand. And was amazed at how quickly the stuff built up. Four two minute sessions with this stuff straight out of the bottle, no alcohol, no oil, far supperior results.

So my thinking now is that it wasn't my technique that needed improving when I finished my guitar, the shellac I was using was useless. I figured I'd post this in case there's somebody else out there stuggling with sub-standard shellac.

Anybody else used this hard shellac?

G'day Paul,
           Is this the Ubeaut stuff from Carbatech?

    Have you used their other products.(sanding sealer)?
What pore filler have you used?
I'm interested how your Tas. Myrtle will go. I think it's a wonderful wood but was put off it by our local tonewood supplier , stating in his experience, it's a bit unreliable.Moves a bit.
I have used it (non guitar) and found it great except for one piece which seemed to have a tension within.When I put it through the bandsaw ,the offcut side twisted out and started pointing to the moon(well almost)
    Regards Kiwi

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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Hi Kiwi,

Yep the Ubeaut stuff, and yep got it at carbatech. Great stuff - so far. It's supposed to fully harden after three weeks, so I'll do a bit more testing then. This is the first time I've used any of their products.

I used CA as a pore filler last time, never again, it didn't do a very good job, and I became allergic to it. All I got was bitter and a nasty little rash (to quote the classics). I didn't use any pore filler on the myrtle, the pores were so small that I didn't bother and they quickly filled up with this Ubeaut stuff, and besides it was just a quick and dirty test. I'll try out epoxy as a filler next time I need some.

I bought this stuff from Barry Kerr down in Victoria via Ebay, couldn't help myself it's very zooty. Who is your local tonewood supplier???PaulB38559.8791898148

G'day Paul.
     I buy quite a bit from Gerard Gilet (Sydney). Ph.(02)93167467. You probably know of him . A really great luthier.www.giletguitars.com.au. He works with a couple of other guys and have found them to be fantastic and a big help. They give me great advise ,when asked,and are very patient . Enormous amount of experience.
As far as finishing supplies are concerned, there is a place called "Shines" in Sydney also Ph.97379745,(shellac and the like). Haven't used them as yet so let me know how you went ,if you do.
Another one is Durobond (Brookvale) 99050811 (lacquer etc.)
   One of the big reasons I like the Tas. Myrtle is because of it's closed pores.That and I find it has a fantastic tap tone. I would like to get a hold of some or at least speak to this Barry Kerr. Rather not go the Ebay way. Have you got his ph. No.?, and what did you pay for it?. Has any "sprung" on you yet?
I've been advised to use Wattle pore filler. It's neutral colour ,so you have to add colour(tile grout pigment)
    Regards Kiwi

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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I've bought some stuff from Gerard, but have found him to be a bit pricy. He worked with durobond to develope their nitro guitar laquer. I'm tossing up whether to go to spraying, but I want to see how my next one goes with hard shellac.

Shines is where I got my shellac for my first guitar (via the woodworks), their stuff is out-shone by the hard shellac.

I bought a can of the wattle pore filler, took it home, took the lid off and had a look, put the lid back on and put it on the shelf where it shall remain. The stuff is like thick toothpaste. I think epoxy would work better, I've used a lot of it when I used to build kyaks.

I don't have a phone number for Barry , but you can contact hime via his website. He's got some nice blackwood on ebay at the moment, finishing in a couple of hours.