Brett Bowman is an experienced practitioner of the traditional furniture finishing technique of French Polishing. Brett completed his aprenticeship under a master French Polisher and has 18 years of experience in this technique.

French Polishing produces one of the most beautiful furniture finishes available resulting in a very high gloss, deep colour and tough surface. It is a very labour intensive and skillful process using specific patterns of hand rubbing to build up many layers of shellac.

It consists of three processes

• :Skinning In' where the grain is 'choked' or filled by rubbing in shellac with acircular motion using a french polish rubber
• .Bodying Up' using paraffin oil and rubbing in a figure eight motion.
• Stiffing Up' using dewax polish on the rubber and rubbing with the grain to remove any marks.
  
  

French polishing restored furniture can be used not to make it look like new, but to give the appearance of a well cared for item of furniture appropriate to its age.French polishing finish has the disadvantage of marking with low heat, such as given off by coffee cups