Thread: How to polish/use Mothers?

I recently purchased some Mothers and Blue Magic for cheap. I was wondering what exactly these polishes do and how to effectively use them to acquire the best results. Thank you!

Aloha!

I just use a polishing rag with Mothers. When I purchased Mothers from Amazon, they offered some polishing rags (soft cloth) and I bought them as well, but you can use any softer cloth.

If the blade I'm working on is really bad, I use 400 (lightly), then 800 (moderately) then 1200 grit (firmly) wet sandpaper with WD-40 to take off the heavy rust and get the metal to a relatively decent point to polish. Then I put Mothers directly on the cloth and start rubbing. I do all my Mothers polishing with my hands. I do not use a polishing wheel. Let time and effort work for you. You can't go from zero to perfect in a few minutes of buffing. I add more mothers to a fresh portion of the cloth and keep buffing. When I'm done, I buff with just the clean cloth. You will usually notice you cloth getting black from the polishing. If I were to guess, I'd say I spend about 15-20 minutes per side of a blade polishing with Mothers.

I'm sure others have better methods, but that's what I do and my results have been very good.

-Zip

Originally Posted by ZipZop

Aloha!

I just use a polishing rag with Mothers. When I purchased Mothers from Amazon, they offered some polishing rags (soft cloth) and I bought them as well, but you can use any softer cloth.

If the blade I'm working on is really bad, I use 400 (lightly), then 800 (moderately) then 1200 grit (firmly) wet sandpaper with WD-40 to take off the heavy rust and get the metal to a relatively decent point to polish. Then I put Mothers directly on the cloth and start rubbing. I do all my Mothers polishing with my hands. I do not use a polishing wheel. Let time and effort work for you. You can't go from zero to perfect in a few minutes of buffing. I add more mothers to a fresh portion of the cloth and keep buffing. When I'm done, I buff with just the clean cloth. You will usually notice you cloth getting black from the polishing. If I were to guess, I'd say I spend about 15-20 minutes per side of a blade polishing with Mothers.

I'm sure others have better methods, but that's what I do and my results have been very good.

-Zip

Thanks Zip! Always love to hear from you

Like Zip I always use it with a soft cloth and a lot of elbow grease.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Like Zip I always use it with a soft cloth and a lot of elbow grease.

Does it typically wash out well from the cloth? Or should I buy a dedicated soft cloth.

Originally Posted by Trubino10

Does it typically wash out well from the cloth? Or should I buy a dedicated soft cloth.

I wash my dirty Mother's Polishing Cloths regularly and the black from the elbow grease rubbing does remove fairly well. You will have some staining left over when you launder the cloths, but it's not bad. So you can RE-USE these cloths over and over. At least I have for a long time and there is no problem with using a laundered polishing cloth. The results are the same.

You can look at it this way, when you polish with a brand new cloth, after about 15 seconds the oxidation and tarnish from the blade is already rubbing off on the cloth and you have a slightly dirty cloth anyway. So the little bit of tarnish and soiling that remains on washed polishing cloths is no biggie.

-Zip

I wanted to add;

I put Mothers on a clean section of cloth, then I buff (polish) for about 2 minutes. Then I get another new section of cloth, put Mothers directly on it, and buff for about 2 more minutes. I do this about 10 times and look at my results. If happy, I then move to the other side and do the same. Once I get everything done with Mothers, I then buff with a clean cloth (no Mothers) on both sides for about 2 -5 minutes each side.

You'll get a feel for this. It's less "exact minutes" and more "how it's looking". Some blades I spend hours on. Some blades I can finish in 40 minutes (20 minutes a side). It just depends on how it's going. Again, I do not try and polish a very badly pitted and rusted blade. You need to get the blade in the zone for polishing by wet sanding first. Once you have it ready to polish, THEN Mothers or similar polishing compounds can do their job and finish that blade to a nice shine.

I personally like to leave a tiny bit of "Patina" on older blades, but you can polish the daylights out of them if you want for a nice shine. Sometimes I have polished too much and made a blade look like new when I wanted to leave a bit of Patina. It's a very fine line between the two and You have to get a feel for it. But you will. Fairly quickly. It's not rocket science and can be learned easily.

You also have to make sure you are not confusing PATINA with BLACK RUST. If it's black rust, I remove ALL of it.

-Zip

Originally Posted by ZipZop

I wanted to add;

I put Mothers on a clean section of cloth, then I buff (polish) for about 2 minutes. Then I get another new section of cloth, put Mothers directly on it, and buff for about 2 more minutes. I do this about 10 times and look at my results. If happy, I then move to the other side and do the same. Once I get everything done with Mothers, I then buff with a clean cloth (no Mothers) on both sides for about 2 -5 minutes each side.

You'll get a feel for this. It's less "exact minutes" and more "how it's looking". Some blades I spend hours on. Some blades I can finish in 40 minutes (20 minutes a side). It just depends on how it's going. Again, I do not try and polish a very badly pitted and rusted blade. You need to get the blade in the zone for polishing by wet sanding first. Once you have it ready to polish, THEN Mothers or similar polishing compounds can do their job and finish that blade to a nice shine.

I personally like to leave a tiny bit of "Patina" on older blades, but you can polish the daylights out of them if you want for a nice shine. Sometimes I have polished too much and made a blade look like new when I wanted to leave a bit of Patina. It's a very fine line between the two and You have to get a feel for it. But you will. Fairly quickly. It's not rocket science and can be learned easily.

You also have to make sure you are not confusing PATINA with BLACK RUST. If it's black rust, I remove ALL of it.

-Zip

Thank you again! Also, I looked up your Bill Cosby quote and found it on YouTube. Very creative Mr. ZipZop!

Originally Posted by Trubino10

Thank you again! Also, I looked up your Bill Cosby quote and found it on YouTube. Very creative Mr. ZipZop!

Mahalo my friend!
Glad you found this hobby and this Forum. Enjoy!

-Zip