What is it you call French polish for sewing machines? I was tought French polishing for wood furniture. In the class I took the high gloss finish you see on guitars and violins was not called french polishing, but it's the same process; multiple layers of shellac dissolved in alcohol, and inbetween layers we sprinkled on a very fine milled stone dust to fill in the grain in the wood, sort of buffed up between applications. Shellac dries rather quickly. French polishing was finished by sanding down the gloss with the dust we used. It gave a flawless silky smooth finish which made the wood look very nice. The high gloss shine was made exactly the same way, but finishing of with a layer of shellac. We used woven cotton fabric, made into a ball for the buffing up between layers. On the web now, I have noticed they use the term French polishing for shellac treatments in general. These cabinet restorers had all kinds of traditional recepies for different polishes, waxes and treatments. I suspect Singer only dipped the machines in black dye and spray painted layers of shellac solution (there is a video on the web some where, but I have never found any detailed description of the process).
Last edited by Mickey2; 05-20-2016 at 01:28 AM.