I used a finishing technique that’s very similar to how guitars are finished. Basically build up ten or more layers of finish (in this case, shellac), then sand it completely level, and polish it with progressively finer grits of buffing compound.

What exactly is ‘french polish’?

I would suggest sanding down the dry grey areas, and then applying tung oil, because to get the original color of the wood, generally you have to take off some material before you can see the original color. However, if you have a sharp scrub plane and a sharp smoothing plane, then it might be better to use a scrub plane to get the grey areas off, then use the smoothing plane to make everything flat. But if the piece is highly figured, then just use sandpaper to avoid tearout.

http://www.george-veneers.com/

I doubt a flooring dealer would ever use shellac, there are probably much more job-specific industrial sealers available to them. This advice was meant solely for hobbyists doing smaller projects like furniture or musical instruments.

Hey Diane, It’s been a bit since you posted, but why not reach out, right?

First off, I’m curious how often it has had to be refinished, because, unfortunately, wood exposed to the elements will never last forever with just a single finishing treatment. Boats are made for the water and every so often, they too must get taken out of service to get new paint. I had to look up Mangaris, which looks more like a brand name, and seems like it’s typically a type of dense tropical hardwood. Most of these, as mentioned in the article here, are oily and have a lot of natural protection built into avoid rotting in the rainforest. Tell your husband that painting it will only take care of it for a number of years–not forever. Taste is an individual matter, but the simplest course might be to simply oil it with an heavy oil, like Teak Oil, which can penetrate that dense wood. Normal oil finishes will probably bounce off it. An oil finish will require regular maintenance, but maybe just an afternoon’s worth of work once a year. The goal is to keep the wood looking beautiful and natural and intact, right? Teak, or a similar oil (do your research) is a good option for that. Using a film finish like polyurethane will look and wear nicely for a while, until it doesn’t. At that point, as you seem to have discovered, it’s a big project to strip the old, worn out finish and put a new coat on. With oil, there’s no stripping of old layers, just reapplying a new coat onto the (cleaned) surface. You may find the wood weathering (graying) a bit more over the course of a year than you like–if so, maybe you need to reapply 2x a year. Good luck!

Just to finish the story. After almost 3 years, I’ve finally realised that the shellac solution mentioned above contained turpentine in addition to isopropyl alcohol, oops! That is why it dissolved previous coats. So, finally I finished the bottle using it as a sealant/primer coat. Worked nice!

I think it will depend on the # cut of shellac you are using. I prefer a thin 2# cut, so I usually need at least two, preferably three coats before I feel confident to top coat it with PU or similar finish.

I don’t see why the shellac would affect chatoyance more or less than any other finish. Are you using blonde shellac? Seems like the clarity should be just as good as anything else.

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Would you like it with oil or raw?