Thread: Cleaned Up W&B

I picked this W&B up about 2 months ago. I finally got the time to clean it up. There are still a few flea bites and light pitting, but it turned out pretty good without sanding it down.



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Very nice! What was your process?

Very nicely done

Yes, I'm interested as well in how you acheived this without sanding. Looks quite good.

Originally Posted by fragalot

Very nicely done

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

Very nice! What was your process?

Originally Posted by regularjoe

Yes, I'm interested as well in how you acheived this without sanding. Looks quite good.

Thank you. I wound up starting to polish it out with Flitz. The Flitz wasn't doing a great job of cleaning and polishing it out, so I moved on to Met-All Aluminum Polish which I used with a Dremel on the lowest speed. To get into the nooks and crannies I used an electric tooth brush. I took it slow and would clean it up periodically with dish detergent and hot water and then start over again. I guess I went through about 4 of the 1/2" Dremel polishing wheels. To clean the gunk out of the ridges in the bottom of the shank I wound up using the Dremel with a wire brush.

A big consideration when polishing these out is to be sure to wear eye protection and be careful around the edge of the blade. Otherwise you can damage the edge of the blade and the piece will go flying. What was once a nice Challenge straight is no more!

The dreaded dremel pling :/ Everyone's been there.. it's the only way to learn really, nomatter how many times someone tells you to be carefull... :<
Another thing to watch out for that many people forget is heat buildup when polishing with powertools, it's a nice way to silently kill the temper.

Pretty impressive I'd say. I'll stick to sandpaper and stitches. :P