Finish Repaired but Not Saved

    I have been working away on this bowl, trying to repair, or save the finish for the better part of a week. I did test spots and neither alcohol or mineral spirits soften the finish so I concluded that it was some sort of hardened poly-varnish/lacquer sort of finish.   And if it had been a poly-plastic finish it should have been easy to repair.

    Over the last couple of days I  sprayed on aerosol lacquer and then smoothed it out with shellac.  Those products stick to poly-varnish products fine.  The finish I  achieved was very high gloss but as I polished the carefully build up finish that I had been applying everyday for a week.....it pealed right off.   It clearly hadn't stuck to the finish underneath it at all.


    I ended up using steel wool to remove the finishes I had applied, sadly the finish came off very easily. Or maybe happily, anyway all those coats of glossy lacquer came off with comic ease.  I don't think the original gloss finish had stuck all that well in  the first place, that was why it ended up in my shop for repair.  I don't know if the wood is oily and so things don't stick or.......??

  Now the bowl looks quite nice, it has a rich glow and even finish.  The final solution was a back to basics-bee's wax and high speed polishing.  I chucked a buffing wheel in my drill press and wound up the spindle speed to 1200 rpm and loaded wax on the bowl and polished it off and then did it again and again.  The result is a lovely old school glow.