French Polisher / Varnisher

[gerry99]

Can anyone recommend a good French Polisher / Varnisher in the Bursledon / Hamble / Southampton / Portsmouth area (or further afield if necessary)?

Thanks in advance

 

[richardbrennan]

If you don't get any direct recommendations, have a word with Russel Rennisson who is based in Haslar Marina. I don't think he does this sort of work himself, but I seem to recall him telling ,me he knew an excellent man if I ever needed one.

 

[Hadenough]

If you get one in ask them not to use steel wire wool. It is used for some French polishing processes and gets everywhere leaving rust stains.

 

[duncan99210]

If you get one in ask them not to use steel wire wool. It is used for some French polishing processes and gets everywhere leaving rust stains.

Second that. Not being used to the marine environment, when I first had a boat with a cabin (long time ago now....) I foolishly used wire wool to clean up some teak oiled woodwork before coating. Did a great job and the wood looked lovely after treatment. Came back to the boat a week later to find out it had broken out in red measles........ Took quite some time to remove it all.

 

[johnalison]

There is a stainless steel version which should be OK, though I've not had occasion to use it.

 

[duncan99210]

There is a stainless steel version which should be OK, though I've not had occasion to use it.

Indeed, and I've used it often since........ Or a pan scrubber works well. No idea if it'd be any use for french polishing.

 

[PhillM]

What is it you want dong?

 

[gerry99]

What is it you want dong?

Two jobs, my cockpit table needs to be revarnished. I would have a go myself but want to have a professional finish. My saloon table also needs to be done as it has some stains and sun bleaching so varnish is probably better but a French polish may be needed to restore a consistent colour

both are Teak

 

[PhillM]

Two jobs, my cockpit table needs to be revarnished. I would have a go myself but want to have a professional finish. My saloon table also needs to be done as it has some stains and sun bleaching so varnish is probably better but a French polish may be needed to restore a consistent colour

both are Teak

Don't know about teak but epifanes on mahogany is so easy to get a decent finish with, especially if you can bring the items indoors. The key is preperation. I understand that you want sombody else to do it, but to be honest, it's not a hard job and even some of the professionals I know don't do as good as job as you can do yourself and they are not cheap either.

 

[2Tizwoz]

Presumably you aren't planning to actually apply French Polish as it's not water resistant?

 

[Marine Reflections]

Guilty of being an antique restorer / french polisher, before the marine trade.


French polish is a cloudy area, if you think of it in terms of a technique rather than a finish or shellac application.

It is more the way the product is applied to the wood.

With french polishing you are filling the grain by forcing the wood to accept it, pushing into the grain with a near dry applicator, removing anything above the surface and re-coating.
What you are left with after multiple coats and flatting is the raw surface level with the product. If they are level then a glass like finish is acheived.

So the shine is created by the surface itself rather than a varnish or coating sat on top. This only has appeal on marine teak in certain locations of course.

(Replace steel wool 0000 with foam backed extra fine discs, Trizact 1500 - 3000 etc for marine)

Technically you can 'french polish' any product into the grain,

There's debate on which is the 'best' finish to go for as with everything, it's down to the teaks purpose really, how much UV exposure, handling hot items, water, wine etc, that should determine what product and technique to use.

The best looking IMO is always going to be completely raw wood, but treated for 'the stretch', UV and water ingress with a thin absorbed product if need be.


Woodskin is very good also as an alternative to varnish, almost a combination of oil and varnish for want of a better description.
I've even Semco'd a cockpit table with multiple coats, surprisingly it came out very well, was durable under UV exposure and repelled water and stains easily.