Thread: A few questions about greaseless compounds

The flappier the wheel, the less heat I get... I also like how flappy wheels conform to the razor. I like some sewn wheels too. I finally got a hold of caswell. They said after the 600 grit greaseless to use their brown tripoli. I'm ganna give that a try. I'll try some smaller wheels too. Thanks for the tip.

oh I wanted to add, I do not go lower than 600 on greaseless as of now. I'm noticing a strange effect with the greaseless... when I do something with it, as I start to polish up I notice these strange almost crystal like hazy spray marks on the steel. I can't seem to get those out. Its hard to explain so here is a pic.

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See all that sparkly stuff? I only get that with greaseless, any idea what is going on here? I tried a few different steels, happens on all

Looks like you are not cutting deep enough with the 600.

What size wheel and speed of your buffer.

Pure supposition here, but the sparkles are maybe caused because your wheels are not firm enough. Close sewn wheels are recommended for greaseless - it needs a firm base to build on and then the wheel itself has to be firm enough that you can apply some pressure against the blade in order to provide 'cut'. Which is the same point that Euclid is making. The supposition part is that maybe your unsewn wheels are only making intermittent contact with the steel causing sparkles.

If the speed of polisher/grinder is in the 3000 range you could still use a firmer construction - but on smaller mops and ensure you have a water container at hand when using greaseless and the higher cut polishing compounds.

thats a decent thought... the caswell site says:
"Greaseless Buffing compounds may be applied to almost any cloth buffing wheel, (sisal, spiral sewn cotton & loose cotton) turning it into a tough flexible grinding wheel"
so I thought it was be okay. My motor is running at 1850 or something like that. I'll try it guys thanks for the advice.

I contacted casewell, we shot chat messages back and fourth and they pretty much had no answer to the sparkly thing. I just looked at some right after the greaseless, and after polishing up. Here is what I found. It appears that i'm getting big grit inconsistencies. like some 80 grid rocks being thrown in there. Take a look at those!

I have dabbled into the greaseless and can say I use mostly 600 on small slow dremel wheels on occasion. Screwed up so much, I kindof gave up.
It can be rough stuff. However (such as in a new DMT 325), some break-in is necessary. I go at the cast part of my vise to smooth out things before I go at a razor. Yes, it takes a lot of the compound off, but what is left is round and more true/smooth.
I would think a piece of pipe would be handy to do the same on buffer-mounted wheels.

Going light and cool is key. Too much pressure will ruin things!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I have dabbled into the greaseless and can say I use mostly 600 on small slow dremel wheels on occasion. Screwed up so much, I kindof gave up.
It can be rough stuff. However (such as in a new DMT 325), some break-in is necessary. I go at the cast part of my vise to smooth out things before I go at a razor. Yes, it takes a lot of the compound off, but what is left is round and more true/smooth.
I would think a piece of pipe would be handy to do the same on buffer-mounted wheels.

Going light and cool is key. Too much pressure will ruin things!

yeah i've tried freshly loaded, after most of it is gone, really light, really hard... tried it all man. I get the same result on either carbon or stainless steel. I really don't see any point in using this crap. I bought some emery compound from caswell, they said its about a 400 so im probably ganna just skip this all together. Waste of money! Unless someone has a solution.
I have new wheels coming, sewn ones instead of flap. Perhaps there was some contamination from something on the wheel I bought for the greaseless, it didn't come in a bag so who knows, but i'm guessing it will be the same issue. Stuff is a pain in the ass to apply anyway.

I truly think a belt with different sizes of grits, contact wheels/experience may be better, thinner razors tolerate neither!
Buy quality!

belts and contact wheels? huh? this is buffing compound on a buffer.... i'm not using a grinder at all here.
that one confused me. I just took from what I was told worked on this forum. A lot of people have bought from Caswell here... I have new stuff arriving tomorrow, I will be sure to get back to this. Thanks for helping though man appreciate it

Originally Posted by glytch5

I contacted casewell, we shot chat messages back and fourth and they pretty much had no answer to the sparkly thing. I just looked at some right after the greaseless, and after polishing up. Here is what I found. It appears that i'm getting big grit inconsistencies. like some 80 grid rocks being thrown in there. Take a look at those!

I'd give odds on that those are rust pits that are getting polished & smeared.