custard
Established Member
thetyreman":3n4nzq6w said:
No, you can't. If I'm french polishing an oiled surface I leave the oiled job for a week or ten days before beginning polishing.
In fact try not to get into the habit of over using oil while french polishing, it's unnecessary and amateurish. An experienced polisher will use oil pretty sparingly, the guy who taught me to polish used the wooden end of a matchstick to transfer a drop or two of mineral oil (that's the most popular choice) or linseed oil onto his rubber or onto the workpiece. But with practise you'll find you can keep going for a long long time before any oil is necessary, if you find the rubber dragging try slowing down, recharging your rubber, or altering the cut. In my experience using a curing oil (like linseed or tung) buys you short term lubrication but the job will be harder the next day. So before you know it you're caught in a vicious spiral.
The problem with excess oil is that it makes the surface look artificially good, making it difficult to read. And then how do you remove surplus non curing oil? The most effective method is with naphtha, but that's not a good chemical to be breathing in. A common issue is a french polishing job that breaks out in tiny white flecks deep in the pores after a year or two. There are several possible causes for this, but one is an excess of uncured oil prior to polishing. Other causes are too much pumice, or bodying up with just pumice and alcohol which I've seen recommended on YouTube, that famous fount of misinformation.
