Before spray guns and film finishes, French shops colored and polished wood with a short list of materials they made themselves. This weekend class offers a hands-on introduction to that traditional finishing kit. Students will begin with natural water stains, learning how to make them from walnut husks and other natural sources and observing how they behave on different woods. Because color is applied before anything else, this is the first step in the finishing process. Students will then explore shellac flakes and their various grades, mix their own cuts, and learn to apply shellac with a mop brush. The polissoir will be demonstrated rather than practiced. Made from compressed straw, this tool burnishes wax into the wood instead of leaving it on the surface. It was the method French shops relied on before French polishing arrived in the nineteenth century. The weekend will conclude with hands-on French polishing. Students will learn the entire process, from filling the pores and making and charging a rubber to using the padding technique that gradually builds the shine. Each student will work on individual sample boards and take home the recipes and mixtures they created, along with a French polishing kit containing a pad and pumice and a mop brush. Two days will not make students professional polishers, but they will leave understanding what each material does, the order in which it is applied, and how to continue practicing at their own workbenches.