Have you ever looked at an antique piece of wooden furniture and admired the extraordinary glossy finish? That is due to French polishing, a technique that takes time and effort to get an impressive finish.

Whether it’s an antique piece of furniture you own that looks like it needs a little TLC, or you’re restoring some secondhand pieces, it can be hard to match the time-consuming and time-honoured method for producing the lustrous finish that perfectly shows off the wood grain.

So, what is French polish? It’s not a product you can buy, rather it is a method for applying shellac to wood, furniture, and musical instruments in many thin layers – typically well over 100 – that results in the enviable high-gloss, glass-smooth surface with a rich depth that highlights the beauty of the wood grain.

While it’s been around since the 1600s, French polish today has somewhat fallen out of favour, due to its labour-intensive process.

The intensive procedure may tempt you into taking shortcuts, but you will never get a true French polish finish with sprays, brushes, or sponges. Neither will polyurethane nor other modern hard-and-shiny wood sealants provide results as pristine as professional French polishing.

It needs a cloth dabber to apply the shellac, which is made from a substance secreted by the lac bug – a species of scale insect native to Asia. Shellac is suitable for any type of wood, but you’ll find it far easier to achieve the glossy, perfect French polish finish on hardwoods with closed grains, such as maple, spruce, and cedar.

If used on an open-grain wood, such as walnut, mahogany, and rosewood, you’ll need to fill the grain with pumice powder, adding an extra step to the already lengthy process.

While there are certainly other methods of finishing wood that produce a glossy finish—including varnish, polyurethane, and high-gloss stains and paints—none of those produce the depth and richness of French polish.

If you’re searching for a french polisher near me, then get in touch today.