Is a polisher worth it?

Hi guys. I have been restoring some razors over the last 2 years and 99% of them are my own personal razors so I am not in business in any way.
I was considering an electric bench polished like some of you use but was wondering if it is really worth it for my circumstances?
I hate all the sanding and polishing by hand sometimes but a polisher is going to make a mess, etc. so I am wondering what you all think?
Harbor Freight has a dual 6" model for just $39.99 but from the little research I have done that is too fast for our hobby so I don't know.

I just bought the same buffer a month ago or so .. I had also been sanding by hand , I bought all the compounds 80,120,220,320 ($54.99 shipped, $12.99 for wheels shipped ) and went down to 4" wheels !! I havnt done any full razors with it yet but I personally think the difference in how much better I was able to make those scales alone shine was way worth it to me ...

I happen to have two Baldors, a 3k+ rpm for tattoo machine frames, and a 1700 for tobacco pipes. I was talking to a knowledgeable restorer in '08 who told me the sanding is necessary before you get to the buffing. .......... He said he did 10 hours on an average blade. Not sure if that is the case with everyone, or with anyone else ? :shrug:

I have no experience with it, cause I hate sanding too ! ;)

I have a single wheel haywire set up that turns at a low speed. I still do a lot of hand sanding. There is a learning curve. You will likely screw up more than one blade. The other thing I have seen is that it is extremely easy to blow all the lines on a razor. You get a shiny razor without pitting but all the edges are rounded. I know that there a some here that do fantastic restore and use a buffer, I have no idea how much they use the buffer and how much they are hand sanding. In my opinion there is a glaring difference between using a buffer as one of the tools in restoring blades and just buffing the s*%$ out of a razor. So if you do get a buffer there is a to of technique to learn in order to do it well.

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Originally Posted by RezDog

I have a single wheel haywire set up that turns at a low speed. I still do a lot of hand sanding. There is a learning curve. You will likely screw up more than one blade. The other thing I have seen is that it is extremely easy to blow all the lines on a razor. You get a shiny razor without pitting but all the edges are rounded. I know that there a some here that do fantastic restore and use a buffer, I have no idea how much they use the buffer and how much they are hand sanding. In my opinion there is a glaring difference between using a buffer as one of the tools in restoring blades and just buffing the s*%$ out of a razor. So if you do get a buffer there is a to of technique to learn in order to do it well.

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So true,buffers and dremels in the wrong hands are the tools of the devil.
My Dad was a gunsmith,I have seen him spend weeks hand polishing a rifle reciever,all with sticks and emory cloth,never a rounded corner or a washed out screw hole.
Buffers in the right hands of a pro can serve a purpose I suppose to a point.
Sad thing I find is most that do a little resto work for themselves want Quick and fast,buffers can cause far more harm than good,JMO

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Originally Posted by gooser

I just bought the same buffer a month ago or so .. I had also been sanding by hand , I bought all the compounds 80,120,220,320 ($54.99 shipped, $12.99 for wheels shipped ) and went down to 4" wheels !! I havnt done any full razors with it yet but I personally think the difference in how much better I was able to make those scales alone shine was way worth it to me ...

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Just curious. Where did you order the compounds from? And why drop down to 4" wheels?

Many of us have that HF buffer and they work just fine. The speed is really not a big problem. Any buffer will build heat and the part will need to be quenched at the slightest heat build up.

I have a 1700 and 3400 rpm buffers and they both deliver the same results.

Smaller wheels slow down the rpm at the wheel, Castwells Plating sells quality wheels and greasless compounds, including good tutorials.

There are many good post on buffing in the Workshop forum, as well as the library.

As said there is a learning curve in buffing razors, and even with 3 buffers and all the compounds, I still hand-sand and polish on the buffers.

There is no magic solution. I find a combination works best if you want polish and detail.

One of the advantages of using abrasive on a mop as opposed to handsanding is that you can maintain an original look i.e. sanding marks are even and run in the same direction as the original grind.

The other reason for going with a smaller wheel - especially when using greaseless compounds, is reaching into the hollow of the blade.

I have to admit that with only a few hours at the week-end to devote to this hobby, the less time I spend on polishing, the better. Leaves me more time for the enjoyable stuff like scale making and honing.

If you think about it, the speed of the surface in units of distance per minute is circumference multiplied by the RPM (or multiply by 60 if you want the speed in units of distance per second). So the larger the circumference, the faster the surface speed at a given RPM. The formula is nice because it will let you compare surface speeds when you have unequal RPM's and/or wheel sizes. For a given setup, the faster the surface speed, the more heat. But then again, a larger wheel will spread some of that heat over a larger area and allow more time for it to cool (I don't really consider this aspect, as I don't think the wheel takes that much of the heat with it or cools significantly, but in theory it's a factor). A faster surface speed also means more rapid "buffing" with a given setup.

Different compounds/stages seem to, for me at least, work better at different speeds.

There's also the torque factor. The same pressure on a larger wheel gives more torque. Probably never an issue when working on a blade, since the pressure is probably going to remain light enough not to stall a wheel, but it is something to keep in mind if you might want to do other things on your buffer or run very large wheels.

Personally, I'd also rather work slower than faster, because undoubtedly there are times when I'm messing something up but haven't realized it yet. (Don't remember wheel sizes or RPM's on my machines...)

I have been happy wiith an infinitely variable speed Foredom buffer but I've already paid for it with pipe restos; it is perfect for jewelry, too. They are not hardly $39.95 but will do a lot of smaller items very well. If you don't have the need for working on a lot of plastic, vulcanite, lucite, wood, preservation of nomenclature etc. the big variable speed buffer/grinder is OK as log as you keep concentration like you're shaving. 1600rpm on an 8" wheel will send a pipe to Jupiter if you don't have a mush-lined catchment box behind it; smaller wheels are, of course, slower, cooler and a little less risky. Gotta hold tight and be precise.

For the small numbers of razors I'll ever need to restore or majorly-polish I would just as soon wet sand with a MicroMesh series. The Foredom is still there but it isn't much faster than MMesh except where is a lot of rust. IMO...

I know from speaking with Valery from the Gentleman's Den, that he will not use power tools of any kind on his razors. He does everything by hand, and as mentioned above, up to 10 hours of sanding wouldn't be unusual.

When I was sanding up the I.Barber Anchor razor (still more work to do), I gained a vague idea how much work, concentration, and care goes into restoring these blades to such pristine condition.

I am a big fan of machines, they make our lives easier, and our things go faster. The big plus to a buffer is that you will never achieve as nice a mirror polish on steel with hand tools, or if yes, than with much more work. The buffer is a really dangerous tool, so take care, but it is one of the most used tools I have.

Now that somebody finally brought SFPM (TY Dylan) into the convo, and somebody else brought in direction (TY Rob)

It puts things more into perspective :)


Caswells has a very good PDF file on buffing, read it, and especially read what it says about SFPM required for proper polishing using different compounds, there is quite a bit of info in there...

Keep your eyes open for quality used equipment, I bought my Baldor for 30 or 40 bucks, don’t recall exactly.

Recently I heard of another for 50. They are out there, as are other good brands.

Either way the 40 dollar HF buffer is hard to beat, at the price. Mine is probably 4-5 years old now with no sign of problems.

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Originally Posted by Steel

Just curious. Where did you order the compounds from? And why drop down to 4" wheels?

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Here's something that was sent to me by the man who helped me with my homemade variable speed buffer. You will find the link to the buffer at the end.

Roy, take this little formula to figure your speed:
rpm of motor divided by the diameter of the pulley.

Use this as an example.
1750 rpm divided by 6" pulley=291
291rpm divided by 3" pulley = 97 rpm

A 10 inch wheel will run 97 rpm. So will a 6 inch wheel.

The surface speed is a different matter though. You might want to drop down to a smaller wheel:

A 10" wheel at 97 rpm is running 3,048 inches per minute.
A 6" wheel at 97 rpm is running 1,828 inches per minute

Formula to figure surface speeds of wheels:

10" x 3.1416 x 97 = surface inches per minute.
6" x 3.1416 x 97 = surface inches per minute.

Hope this helps!! :shrug:


http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...-part-one.html