Shine On

This month Alex Bishop confronts every luthier’s most feared topic – the elusive art of guitar finishing

- Alex Bishop

While Alex falls under the spell of French polishing, the time involved in the process can also be a real wake-up call for a small-scale luthier

The rack of unpolished guitars hanging up in my workshop this week probably signals something I have been putting off for a long time: it must be time to get the bottles out and start the arduous task of French polishing. I’m a big advocate of this centuries-old method for finishing wood, but the long hours needed to complete the process for just a single guitar mean I often find myself questioning whether I should go back to the drawing board and reconsider my methods.