Carmote French Polish

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S

Squelch

Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2012
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14
Location
Gardner, MA
I have an old (old!) bottle of Carmote French polish from the mid 20's (I think) that is almost gone. I found it when I bought my house years ago and use it sparingly for turning. It has is a viscous oily-base and produces a deep, glass-like finish with a smell similar to tanned leather with maybe some pitch in it. It doesn't behave like a "real" French polish, although I'm by no means an expert in traditional finishes.

Anyway, Carmote has been out of business for a long time and I'd really like to find a modern equivalent or figure out how to make the stuff.

Thanks for looking.

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French polish normally shellac, alcohol, oil and can smell alcohol. If alcohol gone smelling oil.

Bet you can make a wiping varnish/poly by mixing 1/2 finish (varnish-poly) to 1/2 thinner (mineral spirits) that will work as well. apply let set until no longer tacky to touch (dry) then apply another coat, following same aproach for as many coats think you need. Normally one to two hours between coats. 50-50 mix just a starting point can make adjustments.

Or look up mixing your own French polish. Never seen it in a bottle so not sure of amounts to mix.
 
Looking at the trademark info, Carmote was renewed by Carpenter-Morton in Massachusetts in 1976. You might check to see if they're still around.
 
Yes the genuine and basic composition of French polish is: 6,2 oz (175 gr) shellac for 1 quart (1 liter) alcohol. Now a lot of resins may be used each with its own properties, like sandarac (softening), mastic (hardening), benzoin, etc.

As pointed above, some brands like Liberon offer ready for use French poslih.
 
StephenM said:
Looking at the trademark info, Carmote was renewed by Carpenter-Morton in Massachusetts in 1976. You might check to see if they're still around.
Click to expand...

Was looking into this--no luck finding them--but I did learn a lot about the company and thanks for the suggestion.

So what I have here (and have been using for a finish) is French Polish minus the alcohol (as suggested by Wildman--totally makes sense now). Given the price on some of these bottles, using this is probably sacrilege. If anybody collects this stuff and wants the old bottle, there's still about 1/4" in there, just PM me.

/andy
 
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