Polishing Lacquer

[Prashun Patel]

Finishing a turned piece is a little different from a flat one; the same rules about application and wait times don't necessarily apply from one to the other. The speed of the spinning lathe allows fast and even application and buffing that are not possible on flat pieces.

Turners are often able to get extremely clear, polished surfaces with poly, where a lot of flat worlders struggle can't get poly to look clearer than plastic.

It remains true that a hard surface polishes better than a soft one. Soft finishes become harder as they cure. But on some finishes, you can compensate for this by polishing more aggressively*. This is the case with lacquer and poly varnish. Also, there are lacquers and there are lacquers. Some cure hard very quickly.

It is also not necessarily true that you you require a thick build to get a polished surface. To get a polished surface, you need a FLAT surface. The easy way to do that is to put on a thick film that can be leveled and polished without burning through. But a thick film requires more time to dry. If you level the finish as you apply it by applying it with an abrasive, or fill the pores beforehand, it's possible to lay on a final finish coat that is ultra thin and can be polished to a high sheen.

IMHO, film thickness should be a function of how durable you need the piece to be - not the sheen you desire.

* edit: Some finishes shrink as they cure, which causes a nice level surface to buckle and settle into pores ever so slightly enough to reduce the sheen; it's another reason people say to wait until cure to buff. But the extent to which this happens varies with different finishes and different woods. Again, all this is just to say that the EASY way is to apply thick, wait, then level, then polish. But it isn't a requirement for all finishes on all woods.