Can Someone Explain Polishing Compounds To Me?

[Phog Allen]

Hello guys. As a wannabe razor restorer I am learning a good bit about the tools and materials for refurbishing these old cutthroats. Sandpaper is pretty easy to sort but I am a bit confused about these rubbing compounds.

I went over azmark's tutorial about using a Dremel with the Dico compounds. I have watched undream's videos with greaseless compounds. And then there are things such as jewelers rouge and things of that sort.

Can someone tell me what the difference is between say, greaseless and Dico compounds? Is there a "grease" compound for lack of a better description? I have even seen Ryobi brand mentioned by someone who got it a Home Desperate(Depot).

Is there a great difference between them and are some excluded for razor and scale work? Thank you.

Regards, Todd

 

[honed]

Greasless:
Abrasives in a glue base.
When you smear it on a wheel, the wheel become a fast spinning sandpaper. Available in various grits.
Called "greaseless" because they are. I wish someone could come up with a better name though..

Probably called so because the traditional "rouges" are grease or wax based.

Jewellers rouge is a rouge, a very fine variety, not really fit for steel, more for polishing gold.

The only two roughes I use for razors are black (emory based, coarse) & white (fine)

On scales I use white if it is horn or synthetic.
Not on wood, though, the wood gets dirty & foul looking.

Then there is the various wheels.
Sisal is the coarsest, stitched cotton medium & loose cotton/denim the finest (Of the ones I use, there are several others)
Sisal for black, stitched for white & loose for final buffing & wood buffing wax / shellac.

I don't use greaseless, so someone else has to pitch in on that subject.

 

[Phog Allen]

Thank you. That helps a lot. I wonder about the Dico compounds though? I suspect they are wax based since the E5(black) and WR1(white) are almost identical to your description of rouges. I used them on my razors and they seemed to work but I need to figure out the grit level so I can polish out each each level accordingly.

Regards, Todd

 

[honed]

I checked them out on their website & it seems that they follow the same "grits" as the EU ones.
They aren't actually really comparable to sandpaper & grealess grits.
But they do cut, especially the black one.

As some point of reference I can comapre to my own scheme & that is handsanding up to 600 grits & then use black on sisal & white on stitched cotton.
That brings a near mirror polish. For a true mirror sand up to 1200 or 2000 first.

If using the black only on cotton after 600 grit paper, you end up with a pretty nice satin mirror.

The black on sisal can actually handle pretty much dirt & ugly patina & light rust on it's own, without having to turn to hand-sanding, if you give it some time.

And the absolutely best thing about that is that you don't end up with the (for me at least) ugly look of severly rounded edges on the spine & tang.
That is unfortunately very common to see on restores where people use greaseless.

If you do have pitting & heavy rust, the rouges won't do much, hand sanding or greaseless is the only solution then.

 

[Phog Allen]

Thank you again. Great information. As for hand sanding, I have now done it on two razors. It is a LOT of work. I am not super lazy but going from 220 wet/dry to 1500 wet/dry took a LONG time. And in my photos I still see scratches. More work to do but I will use a Dremel and buffs if possible!

Regards, Todd

 

[honed]

Indeed, hand-sanding a rusty blade to a nice shine surely is an exercise in patience.

Good luck with the rouges, I think you will find them quite helpful!

 

[mvh]

Keep the dremel buffer away from the edge! It will snap of the edge and send it flying if yo're not careful.