Should I seal Redwood top with egg whites?

ChuckBarnett

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I see a method of sealing a top with egg whites preparation for French polishing. For real? Do any of you that? It's the first build of mine and her ukulele with the Redwood top. Should I consider doing that?
 
I see a method of sealing a top with egg whites preparation for French polishing. For real? Do any of you that? It's the first build of mine and her ukulele with the Redwood top. Should I consider doing that?

Seal it with Shellac. Or Bacon fat :rolleyes:
 
I don't do that, nor have I heard of that technique. Where did you see the method? I just "seal" the top with a couple coats of dilute shellac (1lb cut), let it dry overnight and I'm good to go to the 2 lb or higher coats for layering.
 
Robbie O'Brien. He does multiple 1 lb. coats cuz they dry quickly and the egg white idea leaves a very nice base for the F/P process.
 
Chuck, where in the world did you get that idea? Egg Whites, useful for painting, but for your now ancient uke, just rub on a couple of coats of dilute shellac and get to work. Save the eggs for your breakfast.
Brian
 
He is perfectly correct on the egg white idea. It is or has been used as a sealer on spruce. I've even done it myself. Whether it's any better or worse than sealing with shellac I couldn't tell you. It does the job though. Dried egg white is a pretty hard and fairly brittle material, a bit like shellac. If you use it do so as just a sealer - kind of in the wood rather than on it. It doesn't do a great thing visually (slightly opaque).
 
Just use FP (shellac) to seal before you FP.
Unless you're "refinishing" an historically significant lute or something.
 
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