myland's friction polish technique

[Jeffrey Fusaro]

i used myland's friction polish for the first time last night. i was finishing an ebony finial for a bowl that i am making. the directions on the bottle sounded simple enough, but i wasn't pleased with the results.

i checked their website. not much more info there, than is already printed on the bottle.

i am working on a jet mini-lathe. i had the rpm's on the high setting (3900?).

the part had been sanded thru to 1500 grit.

i applied the polish with a piece of clean, tee-shirt cloth.

after polishing the part, it looked like the the finish had melted/smeared.

is this polish to be used at high speed or low speed?

does it work better with light pressure, or firm pressure?

do you want any heat to build up when you apply it?

my technique would best be desribed as high rpm/moderate pressure.

if you apply more than one coat, how long do you wait between applications?

i ended up taking the polish off with steel wool and just finishing the part with renaissance wax.

any tips wold be appreciated...

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jeffery.....I use Mylands and have good results with it.......Using a folded paper towel......You can friction it....smooth it out by rubbing it while it's on the lathe.......Go to the areas of excessive buildup .....move your paper towl back and forth while it's turning......You have to apply medium pressure.......I've even used it on NE bowls with good results.....change areas on the paper towel so you are using a fresh area when you need to remove access finish in an area. Yes you can use multiple coats.

Good luck! Achieving a good finish is the hardest thing for me to accomplish.

[Larry Crim]

Ken
I used it recently with the same results you had and as ken said I used a paper towel and while it took some practice I finally ended up with a decent finish. I did have to remove some of the build up areas where it smeared with steel wool then reapply it to get to a good finish.
Larry

[Robert McGowen]

My technique.. right or wrong!

Use a paper towel. Apply a liberal amount of polish to the piece while it is on the lathe, but with the lathe turned off. Put some more polish on the same paper towel and turn on the lathe at a fairly high speed. Use the paper towel to even out the polish on the work. Then apply pressure to the piece using the paper towel. (fold the towel over so that you have several layers) The piece will heat up from the friction. It can heat up a LOT, even enough to burn you if you are not careful. Go over the entire piece. For a plate or large bowl, you can fold the towel over the rim to get the back and front at the same time so that you don't put so much pressure on it from one side that it comes off the chuck. (Basically, just grab the rim with the towel.) I usually let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour after and you should be done. Never had any problems doing it this way. Good luck!

[Gary DeWitt]

Please, please don't use cloth anywhere near a spinning lathe! There's another good reason we use paper towels. If the wood catches the paper, it will rip before your fingers get pulled into the work.
Friction polishes are really easy to use, but they can be streaky if you don't get the whole piece wet while the lathe is stopped. You can always add more to a "dry" area, sometimes it just blends in, sometimes not and you have to start over. You can add coats right away, but friction polishes don't really build up like laquer or CA (superglue) will. All this becomes simple with practice.

[Jeffrey Fusaro]

Please, please don't use cloth anywhere near a spinning lathe! There's another good reason we use paper towels. If the wood catches the paper, it will rip before your fingers get pulled into the work.



good advice, gary.

i think the cloth was a big part of the problem. i used such a small piece - for the reason you have stated - that i didn't have a clean piece to move to once the cloth became saturated with the polish. the polish was hardening on the cloth, and i must have been smearing the hardening polish from the cloth back onto the part.

i'll have to try the paper towel technique.

[Bill Wyko]

I'm new to turning but what I've been doing is sanding to a 1000grit finsh then I'm using Deft satin spray finsh. Once its dry I steel wool w/0000 then re apply another coat and steel wool again. Once thats done I do a coat of minwax and let it sit for 15 min. then I used a teeshirt type material to rub it out while spinning at 900 rpm. I'm going to try some other ways soon and I'll let you know my results. Good luck. Put up a pic of your work if possible, thanks.:D

[Andy Hoyt]

I'll use friction polish when I'm feeling lazy or it's a low value or rarely handled item; and I pretty much do the same as Robert does.
On the lathe - lathe turned off - flood the piece with paper towel while rotating by hand. Schmear it on good.
Spin up lathe at Station Keeping rpms and reapply with a flooding application to get it sopping wet.
Spin lathe up to 2/3 Impulse Power and quickly rub it in every where trying to get it even.
Spin lathe up to Warp Nine and rub in gently everywhere without burning.
If I'm still motivated, I'll run it through the buffing process "later on".

[George Tokarev]

Please, please don't use cloth anywhere near a spinning lathe! There's another good reason we use paper towels. If the wood catches the paper, it will rip before your fingers get pulled into the work.


Use the pad strictly underhand, under the piece, fingers slightly curved so a stick will carry it away. Pretty much like sandpaper. That's about as safe as you'll get. The shoeshine method is asking for it. I find that soft unbleached muslin makes a better applicator for friction and French than cotton blends like a T-shirt, though if you're doing a traditional French with abrasive, you'd be better off with the tougher linen.

[Jonathon Spafford]

You probably know this... but go easy on the ebony! It doens't like to much heat, which can cause heat checks!