Fine Finishing encompasses the following procedures: Traditional French Polishing - not only is the finish applied by hand, it is mixed from raw materials. It is considered the zenith of finishes.

Exact color matching to existing furniture and wooden objects

Wax polishing using paste wax to improve the appearance and protect original finishes. This is a reversible and non-intrusive treatment.

Reproduction finishes used to simulate age and wear on a new or inadvertantly stripped antique piece. Painted finishes can also be reproduced.

Reproduction Note: On all historic copies or finish reporductions, we provide some identifiable mark or clue so that the new work cannot be fraudulently passed off as original.

 

Fine Finishing

For a finish to be thought of as fine, it must have a quality about it that invites visual and tactile contact. Some wooden objects need very little finish, feeling and seeing the wood is what is most appropriate. Other objects need the help of a fine or decorative finish. Fine finishing can also match new to old. An example of this would be the new wood added to a queen size bed making it a king size bed. (photo here?) If you’ve ever finished or refinished a project of your own using a can of stain and a can of varnish (the term ?varnish? is used here to generically mean any type of top coat which could be shellac, lacquer, oil, etc.) and not gotten the results you wanted then take note. It is probably because to acheive the depth and color so highly desired, one must layer different colors onto the wood, while knowing how diifferent woods are affected by the various chemicals in the finishing materials. After that one must know how to rub out , buff or wax the varnish so that it magnifiies the character and color, rather than looking like a plastic cover.

It is a saying in woodworking that a bad finish can ruin the most exquisitly built piece, and a great finish can turn a poorly built piece into something that at least will make it off the showroom floor. Most factory or mass-produced furniture and woodwork is built with inferior materials and joinery when compared to how the same handmade product is made.
The finish though on most of today’s production furniture is its strong point, and uses the multiple steps of colors and top coat manipulations mentioned earlier. Another quality that sets fine finishing above ordinary finishing is its ease of repair. Finshes such as shellac, conventional nitrocellulose lacquer, and some oil varnishes are generally thought of as the easiest to maintain and repair. High tech finishes like polyurethanes, polyesters, conversion varnishes, waterbourne lacquers, and catalyzed lacquers generally require more effort in repair and reversal and do not lend themselves to the complex layering of color needed in fine finishing. They are great finishes, but are used in applications like kitchens, bathrooms, institutions, production furniture, and hardwood floors.
The finishing or chemical coatings industry is making these high tech finishes more and more applicable to fine and artistic finishing, so my opinions here will change to keep up with technology, but the facts of time-proven materials like shellac will remain.

Click here to learn more about shellac

 

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