How To Polish Wood To A Mirror Finish. In the literature, it is written that ni plate is polished with alumina powder to a mirror finish. However, due to the stickiness of shellac, that process can be. The traditional way to get a mirror finish on wood is to use a technique called french polish, which basically consists of rubbing on layers of shellac.
Well, we've found you just need any good liquid metal polish.
The final stage is to buff up the surface into that mirrored, polished shine. Gamma alumina is less hard (8 mohs) than alpha alumina (9 mohs) but it is available at smaller grain sizes. I show you how to go from the roughest finish ever, to a perfect mirror shine using sandpaper and automotive buffing compounds. This technique is not suited for wet areas, such as showers or floors. I wanted to cleanup a few of my hammers and polish them up to a mirror finish, and build a stand of oak using mostly handtools. French polish is a traditional finishing technique used by luthiers and woodworkers. It is only water resistant, not waterproof. For example, a porous wood, such as red oak, looks pockmarked because the pores don't fill with finish.
