Thread: The Next Level - metal polish on newspaper

Hi everyone.
I read here that someone is using Metal polish on newspaper to do a final polish on their blades.
They had a reply saying basicaly yes it can work!!!!!!!!!!!!
So beeing a cheapskate, I tried it on a razor that gives me a shave, but, not a very close shave.
I must say that my home honed razors only give me an OK shave compared to my purchases and razors honed by Steve at invisibleedge.
I folded a side from The South Wales Evening Post (I doubt the rag has ever been put to such good use before, well except for emergency toilet roll duty) and put a pea sized squirt of Peeks metal polish on the 4x 12 piece of paper, placed it on my coffe table (yes I live dangerously) and stroped the razor 30 or so times upon the cheapskate ??K hone
It did polish the edge, the edge now pops arm hairs when run up my arm, even high up the hair not right at the base of the hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!
I'm nearly, almost, not far off catching up with Steve(invisible)..........well I can dream
Thanks to whoever mentioned the idea
I'll tell you all if the shave is any good off it.
M

Please post the results when you can!

heck, when I started out I used to finish on a Brasso impregnated canvas strop. It worked great, and I keep meaning to bust it out again, but never do.

I also tried the newspaper and polish route and it does work great.

Hi there!

I folded a side from The South Wales Evening Post (I doubt the rag has ever been put to such good use before, well except for emergency toilet roll duty).........Yes it has, I've had my chips from the chippie, wrapped in it.,......!

Will try the idea out though!

Best wishes,

Mark...........

Hiya Mark, There is someone else in Swansea using a straight razor too?
Now I know who's been beating me to all the razors at the car boot sales

Yeah, this idea has circulated in the background of the forum for quite a while. It's not a very popular method, but it does work, and is extremely cheap/accessible.

Congrats on the sharp blade!

Thanks Russel. I know it's only a cheap trick to nudge my home honed blades in the general direction of an easy shave, but for free (I buy metal polish for resotations anyway) it's great.
I've got a pot of Dremmel polish, it looks like jewelers rouge, I don't know if it is jewellers rouge,but, is that stropable too?
M

Any abrasive paste/compound can be used as a strop paste/compound, the final edge quality just depends on how fine the grit particles are. CrO paste is about as fine as it gets (as far as commonly used abrasives go), jewelers rouge isn't too far behind.

Give it a shot and report back. The worst that can happen is you have to use another, finer, compound to finish the edge.

Cheers Russel.
Right, I shaved with the razor, it cut my beard with less resistance than all my home honed razors exept my Kropp, which it is about the same as now.
The closeness of the shave is slightly better than it was before the polish/paste.
I'm going to put the razor back onto the coticule for a couple of dozen ultra-light laps, then try a little dremmel rouge?? on some newspaper.
I think my next project is going to be a maple paddle with balsa wood one side and I'll see if I can find some nice leather for the reverse.
I'd love to get close to what Steve (invisible) has done to some of my edges.
M

Originally Posted by littlesilverbladefromwale

The closeness of the shave is slightly better than it was before the polish/paste.
I'm going to put the razor back onto the coticule for a couple of dozen ultra-light laps, then try a little dremmel rouge?? on some newspaper.
I think my next project is going to be a maple paddle with balsa wood one side and I'll see if I can find some nice leather for the reverse.

I've had similar results with Maas. If you plan on using metal polish to hone with any regularity, I suggest using cardstock paper instead of newsprint, it's more uniform and doesn't bunch-up.

Don't use metal polish on anything permanent like your DIY paddle, it gets clotty and gunky after a couple of uses.