Thread: Can a felt wheel with MAAS scratch?

hey guys, had a blade that had the weirdest kind of frost looking patina on it. I found that a lot of elbow grease with the MAAS would take it out, no need to go to paper.

BUT

after getting a lot of the blade, on show side, done, I noticed that there are some little scratches. but they are only in a row down about 2" and then some longer ones here and there. If it was scratching i'd figure it to happen everywhere I worked.

Just wondering if it COULD be that before I go to the other side and create more work for myself. I'm hoping to find some CO paste and setup my buffer maybe monday. I made the mistake of taking the 2000grit paper to the tang and of course that is now less shiny than the blade.

thanks guys.

Red

I cannot answer your question as i have never used MAAS. But have used other compounds / metal polishes and this is a mistake i made..

After polishing the hell out of the razor i could see the shine through the black polish/residue so of course you wipe it down right? I had purchased some red shop towels for this so i grabbed on and went to town.. i soon realized everywhere the shop towel touched it left behind tiny tiny scratches.. grr. So i went back to the store and got flannel towels.

Another hobby of mine is detailing cars so i have a huge huge supply of microfiber rags laying around. I used one of those once and it was perfect as well took the polish off quicker than the flannel and did not scratch it.

Because of the cost of the microfiber i don't want to stain/ruin them since when detailing a car i use them one time and throw them away (yes i waste but when detailing a car for someone they expect the best and they pay premium rates so its easier to use it once and throw it away than worry about them having dirt etc in the threads.) with that being said ill probably start keeping them and use them for my razors..

ok so i wrote a book and didnt even answer your question, my apologies.

Hi! I am new to straight razors and razor repair, but very interested to the problem.

This is my first experience with an old razor from ebay and I will try to describe it, since there are some questions regarding the final polishing step. I hope you can suggest something or just give your impression.

The straight razor is an "Henry Althoff, Geneva NY USA" named "gold seal". In the picture you can see above the starting point after cleaning the blade with sodium bicarbonate (I use it to clean and polish my old coffee machine.. eheh!). Then I started handsanding with sand paper: #800 and #1200 used with water (around 5 hours). The following step was sanding with paper #2000 used with oil (1 hour; I used almond oil): the result is in thefirst attached picture.

As final polishing step I used #2000 paper with solid soap (sanding the soap before; 1 hour). Results in the second picture.

Now I think I need a final polish, but I can not find anything to work with. ooohh.. just now I think that coming back to sodium bicarbonate could be a good idea.. I will try.. But could you describe that towels you mentioned or something else? And what is MAAS? ..thank you very much!!

And what is MAAS?

Maas is a metal polishing creme. It is used by a number of guys here on SRP who have had good results. Amazon.com: Maas Metal Polish 4 oz: Home & Garden

As for whether it could produce the scratches described by Big Red, I don't know (but am interested in finding out). I suppose if it did produce the scratches, some more polishing with Maas should take them out, right?

Here's the thing– grit can be everywhere. If you are polishing a razor with even MAAS and put the razor down for a second, put the rag/dremel down for a second, touch something on your workbench and then pickup the razor again, etc. it can suddenly contaminate whatever it is you are polishing. Microfiber cloths are nice because they tend not to cling to every microscopic thing like a cheaper rag might, but they still aren't immune. This ESPECIALLY happens when using different polishing compounds on different buffing wheels. Grit can be thrown everywhere without your even knowing it.

I suspect you got a stay piece of something (could even be a crumb from a bit of food or something) on the razor somehow while polishing and it effected the polish. I may not be right, but other than that, I don't know.