Well this is no rant, nothing to blame but my own inexperience, just looking for a "hang-in-there" from folks who can relate.
For two years I've been working on a 'masterpiece' highboy. Carefully carving, leaving tools marks, fitting every joint as well as possible, being as authentic as possible to 18th century craftsmanship and at the end of this month plan to enter it in the Northwood's exhibit up in cold country -- Minneapolis, MN. Nearly two weeks ago the finishing was 'done' and it was easy street or so I thought. This weekend should have been simple -- wax-on wax-off, but noooo. I apply the wax, wipe off and to my horror I'm left with white streaks in the shellac which do not go away with further rubbing. "OMG now what," says I. At first I thought it was just irregular surface roughness, so out with the rubbbing materials again but to no avail. This stuff was imbedded in the shellac body. I was crushed and even worse had no clue how to recover -- frustration!
So I start experimenting to gain insight (hint don't experiment on the real thing) but soon burn through the shellac and dye. Oh well, time to strip that drawer front. So now I'm really faced with a dilema. Do I strip all the drawers back and start over hoping that whatever I did doesn't happen again. Oh the anxiety -- no solution -- lots of work -- and a fast approaching deadline.
I decided to use up lifelines and here's the good part. 9pm good Friday evening a stranger calls me long distance on his dime just because of my paniced email. He takes the time to explain the problem, works me through a relatively simple solution, and feeds me with more shellac knowledge than I've ever been able to read or learn about in classes. Honestly I can't believe such kindness and knowledge exist in one person. So Saturday I try it out and by 5pm hope is again in sight. The solution is simple enough, but on a case this large doing things by hand takes lots of time and that's the exhaustion side of this, but at least there's a solution that doesn't involve stripping the piece and starting over.
So can anyone else relate? For as many pieces as I've finished and as many test boards as I completed for this piece alone I still can't believe this happened. Some days I think giving up on 18th century finishing and just going to a Maloof finish would be soooo much easier :-)
BTW - my problem is called mineral oil bloom avoid it by using non-blooming mineral oil during French polishing - doh!