About 10 years ago I bought a Caswell 3/4 HP 1100 RPM buffing machine with 6" loose cotton and 6" spiral sewn cotton wheels. I also bought the large buffing compound starter pack. Life got in the way and I didn't set it all about till about a week ago. I have a couple hundred straight razors (a friend of mine had a bit of an addiction and bought over a thousand on eBay and gave these to me, long story...). Anyway, I'm moving forward with this.
I'm starting with some razors that are usable but not really anything special, I figure if I'm going to screw up it might as well be with these. I'm starting out with the Black Emory Cake compound which is described as "Fast cutting, removes rust scale, carbon, heavy tarnish, and sooty deposits." The bars of compound sat for 10 years in a box so they were pretty dry when I went to use them. Caswell's site said to soak them in water for 24 hours, which I did. I seem to be having issues getting the compound on the cotton wheels, perhaps I need new compound, not sure.
Someone said to spray a bit of WD-40 on the compound and try it then, which I did. The wheel then darkened when I tried to apply but that could just have been the WD-40 on the wheel and not the compound, not sure. All I know is that it's really not doing much to clean the blade. Perhaps I was expecting too much, or perhaps I'm simply not getting enough compound on the wheel, not sure.
According to Caswell the surface speed of my wheels is 1650 RPM (1/4 x 6 x 1100). Is this an appropriate speed to do what I need to do? Do I need a larger diameter wheel to increase that?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
I'm starting with some razors that are usable but not really anything special, I figure if I'm going to screw up it might as well be with these. I'm starting out with the Black Emory Cake compound which is described as "Fast cutting, removes rust scale, carbon, heavy tarnish, and sooty deposits." The bars of compound sat for 10 years in a box so they were pretty dry when I went to use them. Caswell's site said to soak them in water for 24 hours, which I did. I seem to be having issues getting the compound on the cotton wheels, perhaps I need new compound, not sure.
Someone said to spray a bit of WD-40 on the compound and try it then, which I did. The wheel then darkened when I tried to apply but that could just have been the WD-40 on the wheel and not the compound, not sure. All I know is that it's really not doing much to clean the blade. Perhaps I was expecting too much, or perhaps I'm simply not getting enough compound on the wheel, not sure.
According to Caswell the surface speed of my wheels is 1650 RPM (1/4 x 6 x 1100). Is this an appropriate speed to do what I need to do? Do I need a larger diameter wheel to increase that?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated, thanks.