Drying French Polish with UV

[Emmanuel Stone]

Hello,

Long time lurker here, breaking my silence.

I have heard of UV 'drying cabinets' being used to speed up the drying time for shellac french polish.
Does anyone have any experience of this, specifically the type/wattage of UV lights that should be used?

Thanks!

Emmanuel

[Michael Richwine]

We use UV cabinet for drying oil varnish on violins, but French polish is an evaporative finish, and any crosslinking the resins do would take place over a period of years. I think UV would do more harm than good, since it is generally the #1 enemy of clear finishes, when it's not being used to accelerate cure time.

Use good technique, just a couple or three thin coats a day, let each day's work dry thoroughly before applying more FP, and you'll do fine. I love French polish.

[Barry Daniels]

Michael and Emmanuel,

I hadn't seen either of you on the MIMF before so let me welcome you aboard.

Michael, Sounds like you got some good experience in the finishing area.

[Michael Richwine]

Michael and Emmanuel,

I hadn't seen either of you on the MIMF before so let me welcome you aboard.

Michael, Sounds like you got some good experience in the finishing area.

Thanks for the kind words. As far as finishing experience goes, something over 40 years professionally.....

[Emmanuel Stone]

Thanks for the welcome Barry. I'm a young luthier (fretted instruments so far) finding my feet in Dublin. I lurked for a long time on the old forum, but for whatever reason the switch to the new software took away some of my apprehension about posting.

Michael, thanks for your info. I was skeptical at first, since I know of a few people that use UV cabinets for drying french polish, but after a bit of digging I think you might be correct. I suspect it might be the heat from the lamps that is having an effect.
On the other hand there is some information online that mentions some oils used in french polish (walnut oil was mentioned specifically) harden under UV light.

For now I will allow the instruments to dry naturally, although I suspect Irish weather is not as conducive to this as in Kansas!

[Michael Richwine]

Oil is used as a lubricant in applying French polish, but very little, if any, is incorporated into the finish. I just use paraffin oil, which doesn't dry, anyway.

One of my colleagues here is from Dublin. He says the weather here is generally colder, but not so damp & windy as it is there.