burr veneer preparation before French polish

[mickthetree]

I have been experimenting with some veneering using hot hide glue. Hells bells, what a smell!! I thought something had died! Turned out it had and they'd made it into glue.

I have successfully adhered some burr walnut veneer to both sides of an MDF substrate. Looking pretty good so far.

I have French polished solid woods before, scraping then sometimes sanding and using the dust as a filler on the first coat, sometimes not, but I am at a loss as to what to do next with the veneer. The veneer is very flat and quite smooth, but should I do anything to it before whipping out the meths and shellac?

 

[Droogs]

run a card scraper across the surface lightly or 320 on a block by hand, but careful if it's modern bought veneer then it'll only be about 0.6mm thick. Then have at with the shellac. you said the glue stunk, was this before you rehydrated it or once in use. It should smell when dry but not once its re-hydrted. If it does then your batch may be off and have mould present, which means it will be prone to breaking down

 

[mickthetree]

Many thanks Droogs.

In case I'm getting my product names mixed up this was Liberon pearl glue. No smell whatsoever when dry, but once mixed with water it started to smell pretty horrible. The best smell I could liken it to was a hamster cage that hadn't been cleared out for a long time.

Great to know about the next step. As this is my test piece I will give one side a go with the card scraper and the other with sandpaper and see how I fair. I bought veneer off another forum member quite some time back. I think you may be correct that it is about 0.6mm.

Do you do much of this type of work?

 

[Droogs]

Mostly make marquetry panels with semi precious stone and metal inlay that are hammer veneered with hide/fish glue onto custom modified games consoles and laptops etc. I unfortunately had my laptop nicked which had all my pics on, but once new workshop is kitted out with a new bench and chevalet will be back to making and will post some pics

for some light reading you can check this out:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=spx ... rd&f=false

 

[mickthetree]

Wow! Sounds very interesting.

Do you think my pearl glue sounds off then?

 

[mouppe]

There's always a little smell from hot hide glue, but unless it's off it shouldn't be a bad smell. I think you should buy a small second batch to compare, then you will know if the first is bad.

Instead of sanding or scraping the veneer, you could add some pumice to the pad, especially if it is already quite smooth as you wrote. This will gently abrade and smooth the veneer whilst you start the polishing.

 

[mickthetree]

Thanks mouppe
I have a David savage DVD where describes the smell as the smell of death! So I presumed it was normal. I will try a new batch as you suggest to see.
I have read about pumice as you suggest but wasn't sure what stage to use it. I think I'll try sanding first then some pumice on the first coat.
I see workshop heaven sell pumice powder.