I have my curtains back up and the tape and paper off the glass. A good sign that I’m done, but I’m not. I need to let all that woodwork around the windows cure good before I go back and give it the “rub out” step. It’s just my own type of “rub out,” not intensive like furniture makers do. But the results are good anyway. I always put a few extra coats of garnet shellac on after I reach the color I want. The reason is when I take 0000-grade steel wool and furniture wax to it, it will lighten up a bit from the rubbing removing a little of the top layers. It really smooths it all out and gives it that antique-looking glow. It’s a pain but after doing all that other work, it would be dumb not to make it look really good by finishing it off with a good “rub out.”

I’ll wait a couple of weeks. Then I’ll remove the curtains and the hardware and really finish it off. I also have to touch up the paint around the windows as I’m not the most careful refinisher. I have used that blue painters tape before but when the alcohol mixture of shellac gets on it, it glues itself really hard to the wall and takes the paint off anyway, so why bother.

So, on to the next project……