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Spotted this on an EBay listing - not sure what this means ??

The cabinet has been French polished to a warm luster, eliminating all of the crazing on the tiger oak.

"French polished to a warm lustre" - means it's been ruined.

briankeith wrote:Spotted this on an EBay listing - not sure what this means ??

The cabinet has been French polished to a warm luster, eliminating all of the crazing on the tiger oak.

REAL French Polishing is a time consuming shellac procedure that produces a brilliant high gloss finish with great depth. Sadly in the refinishing trade it usually means putting a new finish over the old one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_polish

Estott is correct. The French Polish finish is considered by many to be a beautiful way to finish highly figured wood, but it is also recognized as being fragile. It is softer than modern varnishes and lacquers and is particularly sensitive to spills of water or alcohol, which often produce white cloudy marks. However, it is also simpler to repair than a damaged varnish finish, as patch repairs to French polish may be easily blended into an existing finish. The appearance is a clear deep look with great shine. Some people call a lacquer finish that has been done with a similar process of multiple coats, each coat very fine sanded, or 000 steel wool rubbed and then the final coat rubbed with polishing compound and finish wax, a French Polish. That yields a similar look to true French Polish, but by the official definition it is not the same. Russie

In my teen years, I attempted a "re-aamalgamation" and French Polish on my 1914 VV-IX.

I tried to use the purist technique, rubbing with a pad and linseed oil... it was a LOT of elbow-grease work.

I did not get to a piano-finish, but managed to get the flat center of the top looking respectable (?). The ogee perimeter of the lid and the rest of cabinet were another story.

It will be a LONG time before I attempt to "refinish" another talking machine.

De Soto Frank wrote:In my teen years, I attempted a "re-aamalgamation" and French Polish on my 1914 VV-IX.

I tried to use the purist technique, rubbing with a pad and linseed oil... it was a LOT of elbow-grease work.

I did not get to a piano-finish, but managed to get the flat center of the top looking respectable (?). The ogee perimeter of the lid and the rest of cabinet were another story.

It will be a LONG time before I attempt to "refinish" another talking machine.

I must confess that I have used this technique on some of my machines: I certainly prefer it to slapping on coats of shellac and sanding them down.

Bill

When I visited collectors out in California years ago, they described French Polishing just the way Russie did above. They would use super fine grade emery cloth with a (water?) lubricant that they would rub down the old finish with, then wipe on successive passes of lacquer and rub those down, the final smoothing being with rotten stone on a dampened pad. They used "padding lacquer" which came in a bottle, which was so liquid as to be almost watery and dried super fast. I used to get it from Constantine's back then. I tried this technique on a few things, but it IS time consuming. Looks good and is a fair approximation of the old "piano polish" finishes. I found that I could live with the old original as found finish a while until I (hopefully) retire someday and I'll have all sorts of time to do this sort of thing.

I tried it. This is what I ended up with. A phonograph that looks like well you know.

Okay, I'll say it! This looks like it should be sitting on a piano! Seriously, for a custom finished cabinet (done way back or done recently), I think it looks kinda neat. Of course that is just me, cuz I admire old and original custom touches.

Many machines originally had the smooth, glossy "piano finish." (You can usually tell by looking at how the inside of the lid looks.) When done properly, especially with mahogany, it can be stunning. It is like looking through polished glass down into striking, subtle wood patterns and colors. It really has depth.

Sometime I run across people who wonder why in the world people ever bought mahogany instead of oak phonographs, because what they see now is shellac blackened by age and grime with the grain barely visible, if at all. Of course that bears not the slightest resemblance to the original appearance. If they looked like they do now when they were new nobody would have wanted them.

I have a mahogany Diamond Disc C150 whose case was in really awful condition when I acquired it. Since there was nothing to loose, I had it restored with the grain filled piano finish it originally had and the metal replated. While I have other machines of more value and rarity that might draw collector friends more, the C150 is often the star of the show with regular visitors because of its beauty.

Clay