Thread: Crocus finish or Satin?

Originally Posted by karlej

Does anyone have a source for 4 inch felt wheels? I see 6 inch and larger only.

I have not used that one but here a link

4" Beige Polishing Buffing Grinding Wheel Wool Felt Polisher Disc Pad 100x25mm | eBay


4" Dia 1 4" Wide Rock Hard Paramount Felt Wheel Buff Pin Hole Polishing Buffing | eBay

I have a 3" hard felt that I used with black emery but will be switching to crocus for it
I also found 2" hard felt that works well with Dremel.

For the wheels with pin hole I just drill 1/2 on my drill press, they fit very snugly on the buffer then.

I think scotch brite is another type of wheel that might be worth a try. Those look pretty good
https://www.riogrande.com/Product/Sa...ry-Fine/330160
https://www.riogrande.com/Product/3M...l-3-Ply/330541
https://www.riogrande.com/Product/3M...l-2-Ply/330540

Stefan...I've used scotch bright wheels that 10 Pups and I made and they do work really nice for a satin finish, and they will remove the fine scratches from grease-less. After you have the satin finish that you are satisfied with, if you want to make it more of a 'shinier satin finish', use a loose cotton wheel and crocus paste ( use sparingly so as not to mirror the satin look) for a really nice 'polished satin look'.

Originally Posted by Wolfpack34

Stefan...I've used scotch bright wheels that 10 Pups and I made and they do work really nice for a satin finish, and they will remove the fine scratches from grease-less. After you have the satin finish that you are satisfied with, if you want to make it more of a 'shinier satin finish', use a loose cotton wheel and crocus paste ( use sparingly so as not to mirror the satin look) for a really nice 'polished satin look'.

I plan on getting a 4" to try, my home made 6" works very well on tangs but it is still to aggressive. It is great at knocking off rust spots and light spotting removal without causing too deep grind marks.

Made one leather covered wheel.
Mike mentioned that using felt instead of wood as backing works great so I used one of my 2" felt wheels for practice.
I cut the leather slightly shorter than the circumference of the wheel, cut the end at an angle and glued with contact cement. glued the lather to the felt wheel and trued the surface. The wheel loaded very easy, I overdid it so I had to dress it to remove some of the compound. All in all the first attempt was successful. Now I will make several more for black emery, white rouge, and 44 micron crocus.

Wonderful job and pics Stefan. The wheel looks perfect! I'm anxious to hear about your results...

I ordered one of the very fine 4 inch Scotchbrite flap wheels. I'm looking forward to experimenting with it.

Originally Posted by karlej

I ordered one of the very fine 4 inch Scotchbrite flap wheels. I'm looking forward to experimenting with it.

Please post your impressions of it when you try it.

Originally Posted by hatzicho

Really an interesting thread! Thanks for bringing that up.

During the last 5 years or so I searched for - and spoke to - maybe a dozen old german grinders about polishing of blades. Traditionally the polishing process on blades and razors in Solingen is done on wheels of either wood surrounded by leather, felt or cork. The choice of the material depends on what you are polishing. For example if you polish a hollow grinded blade or razor, a felt wheel might be too soft, so that the edges get rounded, therefore cork or wood is the better alternative. Of course there are different grades of hardness of felt and harder felts may also be used, so every grinder has his own experiences.
The surface of the wheels are covered with emery, traditionally Naxos emery, which is glued with bone glue to the wheel. Nowadays also so-called red-glue is used, but a lot of the old grinders swear on the usage of bone glue.
For different stages of polishing, different grades of Naxos emery is used. The pre-polishing is done with coarser emery and is getting finer during the process, which can consist of 5 stages or even more . Last stage before the black- or mirror polishing is the so-called blue polishing. Here the finest emery is used, typically Naxos grade 5/0. During the blue polishing, the surface of the steel is densified. Polishing does not only mean to cut the peaks of the metal surface but also to fill the valleys with material. After the blue polishing process, the surface of the steel shines blueish if turned into the light, hence the name. The surface of steel is somehow sealed after this stage of Polishing, therefore the knifes made of carbon steel don't oxidize too much and too fast. The blue polishing of knifes in Solingen was very famous in the past and still is today, of course it doesn't make the steel inoxidable, but somehow inactive to rust.

The mirror or black polishing is one stage further. Normally the same wheels are used that already did the blue polishing, means, no finer emery is used. Additional pastes help to do the special polishing effect. Nearly all of the grinders I spoke too, have their secrets, what to use, how long, which formular, etc.
Traditionally in Solingen Vienna chalk mixed with rape oil was applicated on the wheels. Vienna chalk is very soft, so depending on the hardness of the steel and the steel itself, also other materials have been used. Sometimes special polishing mops do the final polishing process.

Sorry to revive this old thread, but I have been wondering something about vintage Solingen razors. The semi-polished or satin polished razors have a special pattern of grinding or maybe polishing Whee marks l that you can not achieve that mark pattern with a belt grinder or buffing felt. Maybe I cannot express my idea well enough because my English is not good. If you kindly look at the pictures below I am sure you will understand easily. The marks or trails of grinding or polishing Wheel is very neat and even. there is no up and downs between marks. You can see this pattern even on the razors of these days producers like dovo and wacker, but not on böker razors or french razor producer thiers issard razors. Do you know how can they do this pattern.

The top razor appears to have grinding marks left over, that were not completely buffed out, then a satin finish was applied, possibly from a scotchbrite wheel.

To get a good satin finish, it must first be polished to a mirror finish,(hand sanded to 2000 wet and dry) then buffed on a hard and loose cotton or soft felt wheel with red or white rouge, then brought down, hand sanded to a satin with 600 wet & dry sanding in one direction only.

There are many good examples, looking at Mike’s (Wolfpack34’s) razors or at Nick Wheeler’s YouTube channel.

What we were trying to achieve in this thread was the Old, pre 1900’s Black Polish finish, a deep flawless mirror finishes of the better-quality Sheffield razors. Made with segmented seal skin wheels and Crocus powder.
I think Mike got pretty close.

On both the middle razor and the last (custom), the stria pattern runs both vertical and horizontal.

Are you trying to replicate the even stria pattern satin finish on the first razor or eliminate all the stria with a mirror finish?