Curious on how everyone cares for their polished SS razors! I always lightly dry them with a soft cotton towel and leave them apart to dry. If water marks start to develop (due to hard water) I'll use some polish and polish them with a soft cotton towel. Lately I've noticed some very small scratches, only visible in certain light. It bothers me. Am I doing something wrong, or is this normal? Is there any way to remove the scratches to get them back to their mirror like glory? I searched and could not find a previous thread, so apologies is this is a repost.
Polished SS razor care
- Thread starter Marhos24
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I think polishing due to hard water stains is excessive and may be the cause of those fine scratches. Most often hard water stains cans be removed with just white vinegar or another acid like lemon juice to dissolve the deposit. The act of mechanical polishing is removing the surface of the metal so by polishing you are removing the polished finish left by the makers. You want to avoid doing that unless the finish is damaged badly enough that other solutions won't help. Polishing is a repair and should not be used as regular upkeep.
The good news about polished finishes is that they're almost infinitely repairable. To fix it you'll just have to polish that surface again. Do some research on polishing as, depending on how deep the scratches are, rubbing by hand may not be enough.
The good news about polished finishes is that they're almost infinitely repairable. To fix it you'll just have to polish that surface again. Do some research on polishing as, depending on how deep the scratches are, rubbing by hand may not be enough.
- Thread starter
- #3
Ok, that makes sense. I've always seen polishing as an upkeep for some reason. Thank you for the reply!
It's one of those things that you want to do when you need it, but no more than that. If there's a non-destructive way then you should always do that before polishing. But the fix for bad polishing is just good polishing so it's not a big deal!
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- #5
That's good to hear! I'll read up on how to properly polish. And I 100% agree! I'll try vinegar to remove the hard water stains next time. Best to be less destructive. Atleast it's a "hobby" and I enjoy maintaining my razors. Gives me something to do lol.
I rinse my razors well, then use a soft cloth when changing blades. If necessary from time to time I use some Dawn and/or a soft toothbrush. For me, ’less is more.’ 
My Wolfman highly polished razor came with two small microfibre cloths. Before that I have always rinsed the razor under warm water and dried them with a microfibre towel.
After each use I disassemble them, use a cotton hand towel to dry, then leave the pieces disassembled to fully air dry. I haven't polished any of them. If they need a fuller cleaning at some point, probably just Dawn and a toothbrush.
I've been polishing a few of my razors the last few days. Mine are Brass, but stainless acts the same way, it just takes longer to remove any imperfections when polishing because its so much harder.
I used AutoSol and was surprised to see these fine scratches in the red Brass and can only see them at the right angle.
I had none in the yellow Brass of my Gillette Regent.
Before.
After.
Wet sanded with 600grit paper and AutoSol on a cotton wheel with a Dremel.
AutoSol is fine enough for the yellow Brass it seems, but the red Brass is going to need jewelers rouge to remove those very fine scratches in the cap.
If you do decide to polish the cap, make sure you do it evenly and with light but constant pressure. You dont want to end up with an uneven surface from working one area too much or for too long.
I used AutoSol and was surprised to see these fine scratches in the red Brass and can only see them at the right angle.
I had none in the yellow Brass of my Gillette Regent.
Before.
After.
Wet sanded with 600grit paper and AutoSol on a cotton wheel with a Dremel.
AutoSol is fine enough for the yellow Brass it seems, but the red Brass is going to need jewelers rouge to remove those very fine scratches in the cap.
If you do decide to polish the cap, make sure you do it evenly and with light but constant pressure. You dont want to end up with an uneven surface from working one area too much or for too long.
- Thread starter
- #10
You've had some phenomenal results there! Thank you for sharing. All that I have is a tub of blue magic metal polish and some soft cotton towels. Would I be able to get rid of the small scratches with time and elbow grease, or would I need the different grades of polish and a mechanical wheel? Also, when polishing do you want to maintain a consistent direction, or work in circles?
- Thread starter
- #11
You know there was a time many years ago when I would actually get down and polish my bikes. I found AutoSol, despite seemingly being the go to brand among bikers, was aggressive enough to scratch chrome. I stopped using it in favour of less aggressive polishes. Nowadays I just throw a bucket of water over em once a year.
It doesnt matter which method you choose, a bench mounted set up, a Dremel, or by hand. They all do the same job, the only difference is time spent. See this post, and page, of my journal thread.
20 minutes. The same work would have been done in less than 5 minutes on my bench mounted wheel but its difficult to be as precise and theres a risk of bending the safety bar using it. Not to mention it getting caught or snagged and flying out of my hand.
That took 20 minutes but would have taken 5 or less on my bench set up. Doing that by hand would have easily taken me an hour or more including time spent with wet sandpaper.
Almost any polish will get the job done. Removing the marks I see in your picture should be pretty easy and quick to do, by hand. It might even be more like a good cleaning than a polishing really. The more time spent with finer and finer grade compounds, the better the finish. It depends how much time you want to put into it.
When I set up my bench mounted wheel I was mainly polishing stainless, knife blades. When I started I bought three different bars of jewelers rouge, Red, Green and White. I found the white worked the best on Stainless so I gave my other bars to a friend that also set up a buffing station in his garage. He polishes Stainless, Aluminum and Brass. I cant remember which compound, Red or Green, worked the best on Brass, but one of them gave a really surprising amount of depth. It's like you can look through the surface of the metal like its a liquid. The razors I've done in the last week have just started to take on that appearance, but I'll finish them with one of the other compounds.
Thats a great question. When I polish I'm not sure it matters but I rotate the cap in my hand so I end up polishing from 2 or 3 directions. Doing it by hand gives far less chance of screwing things up. Doing it on a bench mounted wheel, if you linger too long in a single place, its pretty easy to create a low spot. Then the entire surface needs to be taken down to the same level to have a consistent finish across the entire piece.
Using a Dremel, even on the lowest speed, also makes that very possible. I could have just polished over and closely around some of the larger, deeper scratches but if I did, the doors would had have a wavy surface. Polish the entire surface the same amount to keep an even finish.
AutoSol works pretty well, but I'd never used a Dremel to polish anything before. Even at the slowest speed its still pretty fast and I was using the smallest wheel I had. That made it more aggressive than I would have liked, but its always been fine for me polishing by hand.
The compound that came with the Dremel kit I found aggressive. Its more like a grinding paste than a polishing compound.
This is after 20 minutes work. I didnt use any wet sandpaper, but I'll have too.
The first 10 minutes using the included Dremel polishing compound No.421.
The camera and lighting doesnt show it, but theres very fine metal flake in it. Its actually pretty aggressive and works more like a cutting compound than a polishing compound. It leaves light swirl marks behind.
I could have used it to remove the deeper scratches but I have more control using wet sandpaper.
I do not have enough confidence to care my ATT with polishing.
Which polish is relatively mild?
Thanks for your inputs.
Which polish is relatively mild?
Thanks for your inputs.
Thank you, @Esox,
Which one is milder? Flitz or Maas?
To be honest, I fear that my bad techniques may destroy appearances of ATT.
I've not used either of those polishes, but I know @Chan Eil Whiskers has used Flitz and I believe @Ad Astra has used Maas.
I've only used AutoSol, which works really well, especially when done by hand, and jewelers rouge on a cotton wheel.
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
I've used only Flitz and have no idea how to compare them. Flitz works well with a rag and elbow grease.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Maas is great on brass, but I just wipe down SS and titanium ... All such polishes are mildly abrasive.
AA
AA
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