Vincent,  I have done the French polish thing.  It requires a homemade
pad of cloth filled with wool which is used to flow shellac onto a
surface.  My advice is to read various sources about the technique.
Each source that I read had a slight variation of the technique or
debunked another method.

The key points are that you end up wetting the pad with shellac and
rubbing it onto the wood in various stroke patterns, using minute
amounts of a non-drying type oil (I used olive oil) as a lubricant.
You cannot stop the pad on the surface, so you apply and remove the pad
like an airplane landing and taking off.

The technique is too involved to discuss in this forum, but those are
the basics.  I like the results, but it will give your arm a workout
and takes time.  I practiced on the actual piece I was restoring
because mistakes with shellac are easy to correct, which I did.

My advice is to read about it for a few hours, think about it for a few
months, then do it to see if it is the thing for you.  I read about it
for two months until I had the courage to try French polishing.  I do
like the results though.  Good luck.

Larry Toto
Philadelphia, PA