I use shavings to burnish unfinished turned work while still on the 
lathe, and it works well. Speed is a huge advantage there.

My testing to this point shows that burnishing with either brown paper 
bag or polissoir enhances both the surface feel and appearance of the 
padauk. After damping to raise grain, drying and then sanding to 400 
grit and vigorously brushing sanding dust from open grain, I burnished 
one section with polissor (no wax) and one with brown paper. The 
polissoir produced more sheen than the brown paper, possibly because it 
is easier to apply pressure with the polissoir, and because the corn 
straw is harder than the paper, and so better able to compress the tiny 
surface irregularities left after sanding. The hardness of the padauk 
apparently prevents the polissoir from abrading any softer material at 
the surface, which I wasn't hoping to achieve. The sample surfaces both 
appear to have taken a first coat of T&T well. The wood looks bare, but 
with a lovely, subtle sheen. I will burnish my samples again before 
applying a second coat of the T&T.

fwiw
Don

On 2024-01-29 9:09 a.m., james rich wrote:
> Burnishing with your plane shavings after finish planing might work 
> for you . I learned the technique from the great Krenov (indirectly) 
> from a class I attended years ago . Simple , good exercise, and works 
> great . Oh , almost forgot , FREE !
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 27, 2024 at 9:43\u202fAM Frank Filippone  
> wrote:
>
>     AFAIK, the technique of burnishing with a polissoirwas not one
>     used on Mid Century furniture.
>
>     Having said that, I have done some work using the polissoir on
>     wood, and find that the effect ( early wood texturally sepaarted
>     from the late wood) is
>     more effective on soft wood species... cedar, pine or even oak
>     versus ebony or purpleheart. for example.� Padauk is a hard wood,
>     and I suspect the
>     results of burnishing it will be not enough to get a significant
>     textural finish difference.
>
>     Now if all you want is a really SMOOTH finish, use more sandpaper
>     ( go to 320, wet the wood, start again at 220 and go to 600) or
>     plane it super well.
>     Try the burnishing using a stiff rag.� That should give that kind
>     of finish...
>
>     BTW, Padauk is one of those woods that changes color when it
>     oxidizes.� If you sand it, it WILL change color.� On an old piece,
>     one that is oxidized
>     over time, you may make a LOT of work for yourself in needing to
>     re-sand the entire bookshelf.
>
>     Frank Filippone
>     BMWRed735i@G...
>
>     On 1/25/2024 2:42 PM, Don Schwartz wrote:
>     >
>     > Has anyone used a polissoir ( corn-straw burnisher, Jeff) on a
>     Tried & True Original finish? I made a couple of wall-mount shelf
>     supports, to
>     > replace the ones UPS broke, so my daughter & GIT can finally
>     install a teak-look shelving system that belonged to my
>     recently-departed Aunt. It's
>     > not critical, but I'm wanting to emulate a mid-century
>     barely-finished look on padauk. I'm tempted to burnish before
>     applying the T&T as the grain's
>     > quite irregular, but I don't want to interfere with absorption.
>     All suggestions welcome.
>     >
>     > Don, in nearly-balmy Calgary
>     >
>
>
>     
>
>

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