Thread: Homemade metal polish

Hi All!

I'm in the middle of restoring a Jackson straight razor. I finished sanding it and I am starting the polishing process. I decided to make my own metal polish instead of buying some. I made a polish made of flour, salt, and vinegar. It was a recipe I found for polishing brass, but it seemed to make the consistency I've seen used for polishing steel straight razors. Unfortunately after I used it my blade looked nothing like a mirror finish! Instead it looked as if I had tarnished it! There are now waves of a brownish color all across my razor even after rinsing it and wiping off all the polish. At this point I'm thinking of making a polish specifically for steel (it's for stainless steel but I imagine it would work the same).

Should I concerned about the tarnished look or do you think it can be easily removed?

thanks!

Vinegar can be used to etch and patina a steel blade.
You should be able to buff it out but it will probably be some work.
It will not effect the function of the razor once honed properly but I would keep the vinegar away from it.

Blue Magic at near any Auto Parts store...

The tub lasts me about a year, should last a normal person several more unless you leave the top off

Costs anywhere from $3.99 - $8.99 depending on where you buy it

There are many others out there of course, and many more specialized, and many more expensive, haven't found many much better though..

Sometimes, it is better to just use what works best

That's a really good point. Thanks for your advice, Glen. I've enjoyed your videos on YouTube. Learned a lot about honing by those videos.

Many Thanks for the heads up on the Vids, always nice to hear that they are helping out...

Glen's suggestion of the Blue Magic is spot on.

Honestly, unless there is just a particular reason why you want to make your own, I'd follow his advice.

Nothing wrong with making your own. The problem is not respecting the metallurgy. The Salt and Vinegar recipe was specifically for removing the tarnish from non-ferrous metals. I'm no chemist, but it's a different substance than the oxides that are produced by high-carbon steel.

Salt is great for cleaning lots of stuff, but none of them made of steel. Vinegar is around 5% acetic acid. A very mild and useful acid, a known rust eater-sometimes used to "refresh" files.

I don't have a recipe for you, but I'm sure digging around the web will locate you some. There are some recipes in the Machinery's Handbook, but they're mostly for non-ferrous and I don't have my copy handy.

Best I can advise for steel: Salt, never. Acetic acid-with care, as in it will consume your metal if you forget where you left it. Flour is just filler, best reserved for biscuits and waffles.

Blue Magic eh? I may take the mule to town later today...

This may be adding gasoline to the fire, but in keeping with the homemade vein of things... if you boil some baking soda in water with a strip of tinfoil at the bottom, when you put a tarnished something in it , the tarnish goes away. Or so I hear...

But personally, I'd use some Blue magic and back slowly away from the polishing mixture you came up with. :-)

Originally Posted by jimmyv

Hi All!

I'm in the middle of restoring a Jackson straight razor. I finished sanding it and I am starting the polishing process. I decided to make my own metal polish instead of buying some. I made a polish made of flour, salt, and vinegar. It was a recipe I found for polishing brass, but it seemed to make the consistency I've seen used for polishing steel straight razors. Unfortunately after I used it my blade looked nothing like a mirror finish! Instead it looked as if I had tarnished it! There are now waves of a brownish color all across my razor even after rinsing it and wiping off all the polish. At this point I'm thinking of making a polish specifically for steel (it's for stainless steel but I imagine it would work the same).

Should I concerned about the tarnished look or do you think it can be easily removed?

thanks!

That's the mix I use for cleaning my kitchen copper pots n pans, want to keep "chemicals" out of any food related thing so no special copper polish for me.

For steel, nah, as said above, there is a multitude of cheap steel polishes around.