Thread: satin / mirror finish on blade

All my razors have some small hairline scratches after I honed them on the 8K Norton and the coticule How can I remove these scratches to match the original satin / mirror finish ? Thanks for your advice.
Tom Tong

If they are truly hairline you can try a cape cod polishing cloth or you can try using a dremmel with the proper rouge but if you do use the dremmel be careful. One slight slip and its good bye razor. If you want to put the satin finish back on the blade they sell polishing blocks for watch polishing that will accomplish that. They can be found on the Timezone.com site in the tool shop or by going to the website of Frei and Borel.

I have a spinning tool like dremmel running at 20,000 rmp and 0.50 micron diamond paste and 1.9 micron black diamond from Hands American. Do I need other abrassive compound? Must I get a dremmel to do the job? Thanks
Tom Tong

I think that the diamond paste you have is designed for sharpening not polishing. You need some rouge which is very fine and designed specifically for polishing. Your tool will do, though its kind of fast if its variable speed use a lower speed like 7.5K or so. just be careful not to heat up your blade too much and use either a felt wheel for polishing or a muslin buff. Make sure you use good eye protection just in case.

Hi Thebigspendur,

I have checked out Frie & Borel site and found that there are many types of rouge block, which one is to achieve satin finish and which one is to achieve mirror finish on a stainless steel blade? Any difference in use of rouge for a carbon steel blade?

The speed of my spinning tool is variable, so I will use lower speed as suggested by you. Thanks you very much.

Tom Tong

No matter which rouge you use, their function is to polish. Rouges will not put on a satin finish. If you want to replicate the grind marks left by the wheels used by razor makers, you can get radial bristle discs, or use some red scotchbrite from the hardware store.

Scotchbrite needs steady and straight "draws" that overlap one another as you traverse your way along the blade. It also takes a lot of them. It's not out of line to expect to make 400 or more passes. Make sure you have the cutting edge resting on a block of wood as you do it.

Radial bristle discs are at www.riogrande.com