Thread: How do you mirror polish your straight razors

How do you mirror polish your straight razors when restoring them???

The best way to start to learn to do this is with wet/dry sandpaper and a lot of patience. As you progress from one grit to the next you must be certain to eliminate ALL of the lower grit's scratches before moving up. As far as I know, w/d sandpaper goes up to 3000 grit. If you want to go higher you will have to switch to micromesh.

IF you decide to move up to a dremel, be absolutely certain that the direction of the rotation of the wheel is from spine to edge--the opposite way can lead to catastrophe.

It is not the way to start, but people who do much restoration end up with buffers, but I strongly recommend that you do not bother with them yet until you get some sanding done.

I must echo the caution to not use power tools to begin with. Start by hand and introduce power tools later is the best way to do no harm. In the words of one of the most experienced restores I know of "rush a restore and ruin a razor" There is so much information in the how to pages at the start of the workshop forum.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...wers-here.html

I wet sand up to 2500 or 3000 grit by hand. Then I switch to polishing compounds on rubbing cloths and polish by hand up to chromium oxide for a mirror finish. Finally a rub down with Mothers.

I have a power buffer, but I feel safer doing it by hand.