Thread: Cleaning up Nasty Old Black Scales

I tried this out last night after I scuffed up one of those old black "plastic" scales that kind of smell like tar when they get ground a little.

1. light sanding with 600 grit sandpaper
2. heavy buffing with chromium oxide on a paper towel
3. light buffing with chromium oxide on a paper towel
4. heavy buffing with tooth paste on a paper towel
5. light buffing with tooth paste on a paper towel

With the heavy buffing just rub parallel the length as hard as you can press against a flat surface and the light buffing do circles.

Shiny. This isn't agressive enough to get out gouges and medium to deep scratches but light scratches, "whoops" accidents with sandpaper and scuff it works great.

The OCD guys like Topher might find a new obsession with shining the scales instead of the blades .


Mark

You mean like this

Wow. Not quite that good. Back to the drawing board I guess...

It does a nice job then I suppose. How did you get it from nice to wow?

Good thread. I want to see more WOW! scales...
PLEASE..
Nice Ken.
Please share the WOW course of action
Regards

A wild guess would be some kind of rouge, I've been playing with the one called ATOL 6 in this chart, and it polishes up scales really nice, don't know how long it'll last though.

What I do with the scales depends on the material. With celluloid I'll try just cleaning them first with MAAS. If they are in good condition, I'll use a polymer car wax to get them to shine up. I use a finishing buffing wheel at a medium speed. With Bakelite, I'll start out with MAAS. I often use chromium oxide on a firm wheel at a medium speed. If I have had to sand Ill do just as I do for blades. I snagged a compound that watch repair guys use for buffing watch crystals. This is done on finishing wheel at low speed. I will then finish off with a very light coat of carnauba wax.
Horn and bone have a lot of other issues and it is too much information to put in a post.

One thing to remember, it is important how you hold your mouth.