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I had a razor hand-sanded up to 1200. I'm new at this and am just trying things out for the first time. I tried polishing with Dico compounds, using a Dremel and felt buffer attachment. I used the sequence recommended on the Dico tube (E5, SCR, CR1). I set the Dremel at the lowest allowable speed (5,000 rpm). The buffer left scuff marks all over the blade. I finally had to sand them out.
Clearly, I'm doing something wrong with the buffer, but I'm not sure what. Any advice?
Joe
I can't speak to using a Dremel tool for polishing because I do mine by hand. You might try Flitz metal polish, it gives me great mirror finishes. If your blade has been sanded/polished to 1200 grit, Flitz will remove the satin (scratches) finish to a mirror shine.
For one blade, I followed the advice on a Brad Maggard tutorial: finishing sanding up to 1500 grit, then thirty minutes with metal polish (I used Maas). But he sticks in some buffer time (white jeweler's rouge, if I remember correctly) between the 1500 grit and the metal polish.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozarkedger
Joe
Joe
That sounds like a good plan. If you don't achieve what you're looking for when you get to your final polish you can always back up and try a different product or approach. I'll sometimes use 3K grit paper with a light machine oil before final polish.
I use wet dry with WD-40 to 2K and then steel wool with mothers and then mothers. Wet dry is best with a backing, I use wine corks.
I was just looking at a couple of tutorials giving advice on different things you can use for backing--wine corks, rubber tubes, erasers, leather strips, wood blocks. Lots to choose from! One tutorial said use something hard (wood, for example) for the lower grits, then softer backings further up the line.Quote:
Originally Posted by RezDog
Joe
You just have to find what works with what you got. If you go to 1200 then some compound and a felt wheel with the Dremmel should take you home to chrome. If I sand by hand to 600 grit I can go with black compound , green, white , blue done, except a quick clean up with a polish. (now that's a felt wheel with Dremmel)
What you need to learn is at what grit do you stop and go to what polish. If I went to 2500 paper then I would start at white compound. Sounds like you just backed up a few grit levels from your finish paper.
I found a table for grits and compounds that puts emery at about 600 grit.Quote:
Originally Posted by 10Pups
You're right that in starting back with emery I dropped down some grit levels. But then, after the emery, I worked back up through the Dico compounds to CR 1, then used chromium oxide powder with the cloth Dremel buffing wheel. At that point, I still had the buffing marks from the felt buffers. They looked sort of like wind waves in desert sand, or like driving along railroad ties. That's when I started back with 800 grit and worked up to 3000 grit, then chromium oxide on a cloth buffing wheel with the Dremel, and finally Maas.
So I haven't yet figured out how to use the Dico compounds and felt buffing wheel without leaving buffing marks. I had the Dremel set at the lowest setting (5,000 rpms).
Joe
I've also been using WD 40 with wet/dry. I'm not sure exactly why it seems to work better. Moves more easily, faster, and it makes a sort of paste, almost like slurry. Seems better than scraping dry grit across the blade.Quote:
Originally Posted by RezDog
This time around, not having a wine cork handy, I used a big rubber eraser as backing for the sandpaper. That worked well.
Joe
Sorry all hand sanding here
I go to 5000 grit wet & dry then autosol
I have also used the dremel felt buff a couple of times but only with the autosol usually for pits etc
But not keen real yet with it
The scratches you see may be left overs from previous grits that where never quite removed. If I'm not very thorough, I find they can show up two grits further up the scale, coming into focus when the background "noise" of scratches is reduced by the finer grits.
[emoji33]I wouldn't use a Dremel to do anything on a straight razor. Just ain't safe!!
Are you using the ¼ inch felt wheels?
You have to keep them moving or they will dig in, better yet double them up to ½ inch you will just need a longer screw for your mandrel.
Get a 4mm sheet of craft foam, a dollar at a craft store and use that as a work surface, pressing on the blade with one hand will imbed the edge in the foam and there is no chance of the buffing wheel catching on the edge, you also cannot cut yourself if hand sanding.
Post of picture of your wheel set up.
Also use the slowest speed possible on the Dremel high speed, pressure and grit will gouge, keep it moving let the grit do the work not pressure.
You can use a Dremel, plenty of folks have and still do, slow speed and lots of caution. If thing go bad they go bad quickly. Be careful.
Here's what it looks like now, after 3000 grit wet and dry, and Maas:Quote:
Originally Posted by Substance
Attachment 167660
Attachment 167661
I haven't yet gotten the hang of the Dremel sanding or buffing. The sanding drums leave waves of depressions in the metal, and the felt buffers with Dico compound leave rough scuff marks. I must be doing something wrong. I Don't know what it is.
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Below, I'll put in three picture of a blade with the waves of depressions left by the sanding drums (240 grit). This is the first blade I started restoring, a few days ago. It is a 5/8 W&B wedge. It had a bad chip and deep pitting. I wasn't sure it was salvageable. I started with it because I thought it potentially the least valuable of my razors, and I wanted to make the worst first learning mistakes on a less valuable blade. I progressed with it only as far as these photos show when the mailman delivered the F. R. Reynolds pictured at the top of this post.
The first picture shows the waves of depressions near the spine on the half of the blade toward the heel:
Attachment 167663
The second picture shows the waves of depressions near the spine close to the toe:
Attachment 167664
The third picture shows the waves of depressions on the reverse side of the blade, near the spine close to the toe:
Attachment 167665
Do other restorers ever use sanding drums with a Dremel? Is there a good way to do it? For now, I'm just avoiding the sanding drums, going with hand sanding instead--as I did with that F. R. Reynolds at the top of this post.
The little W&B wedge will be very small indeed by the time I finish with it. I imagine it will be usable for shaving, though.
Joe
The wheels are 1 inch in diameter and 3/8 in width. For the emery, I was also using a pointed felt tube that looks like the front end of a rocket ship:Quote:
Originally Posted by Euclid440
Attachment 167670
Thanks. That's a good tip. I'm using a hardwood base with embedded rare-earth magnets. I tried putting self-adhesive felt over the magnets to keep them from scratching the blade. But I use WD 40 with wet and dry paper, and the felt got gunky fast. Took me a long time to clean off the glue from it. Now, I'm using a 1/8 inch thick sheet of plexiglass over the magnets. I'll try the foam.Quote:
Get a 4mm sheet of craft foam, a dollar at a craft store and use that as a work surface, pressing on the blade with one hand will imbed the edge in the foam and there is no chance of the buffing wheel catching on the edge, you also cannot cut yourself if hand sanding.
I'll try again, keeping it moving, light touch. I had already been using the lowest rpm setting, which on this Dremel is 5,000.Quote:
Also use the slowest speed possible on the Dremel high speed, pressure and grit will gouge, keep it moving let the grit do the work not pressure.
You can use a Dremel, plenty of folks have and still do, slow speed and lots of caution. If thing go bad they go bad quickly. Be careful.
Joe
I looked on Amazon and don't see any threaded mandrels with threads longer than 3/8 inch. Is there some workaround for that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Euclid440
Joe
