Thread: STEEL WOOL

I recently picked up some packs of the Red Devil "professional" steel wool from the #3 thru the #0000. Does anyone know how these compare to sandpaper? Obviously the 3 is pretty coarse but if I were going to use them in the restoration of a blade how would the steel wool stack up to 6, 8, 1500 sandpaper?

Thanx in advance for any info.

not for sure but i would ues the steal wool after the sand paper ot bring up the shine.

I have used 0000 wool with a little bit of lubricant like Break Free to go over surface rust on a blade. Worked pretty good and left no scratches. I can't say beyond that.

I have used 0000 steel wool to bring up a shine on a waxed wood surface. No scratches there so I doubt it would scratch a steel razor.

It worked very well on the wax.

Would 0000 steel wool bring out the shine on polyurathaned wood?

Originally Posted by JetHed

Would 0000 steel wool bring out the shine on polyurathaned wood?

I'm not sure that it would - I did a stint of decorating decades ago, and we used steel wool on varnish to change it from glossy to satin - I can't remember what grade of steel wool it was, but it definitely dulls the finish.

We also used it between coats of varnish for a super-smooth glossy look - it gave the next coat of varnish something to "cling" to, and it levelled off any runs and sags.

Regards,
Neil

when I was researching finishing wood for my first restore, some sites suggested that steel wool leaves material behind that will dull the natural color of wood. These sites suggested not using steel wool for finishing wood. I can't see an issue using it on metal and I in fact used some super fine wool to create a satin look on metal before.

Granted most research will show that there is not a direct correlation of wool and paper but I did find these pages when i was doing the reasearch....

SteelWool.biz _Grades & Uses
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publi...tion/HI_26.pdf

on the second page there you can compare the grit uses and the wool uses and try to line up the job you are working on.

hope that helps

Originally Posted by TheBaron

when I was researching finishing wood for my first restore, some sites suggested that steel wool leaves material behind that will dull the natural color of wood. These sites suggested not using steel wool for finishing wood. I can't see an issue using it on metal and I in fact used some super fine wool to create a satin look on metal before.

Granted most research will show that there is not a direct correlation of wool and paper but I did find these pages when i was doing the reasearch....

SteelWool.biz _Grades & Uses
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publi...tion/HI_26.pdf

on the second page there you can compare the grit uses and the wool uses and try to line up the job you are working on.

hope that helps

That could possibly be due to the fact that thereare two types of steel wool - one is impregnated with oil to stop it rusting, the other is not. I suppose that if you used the more common oil-coated type (more common because it lasts longer on the shop shelf) then some of the oil would remain behind.

Just an idea...

Originally Posted by TheBaron

when I was researching finishing wood for my first restore, some sites suggested that steel wool leaves material behind that will dull the natural color of wood. These sites suggested not using steel wool for finishing wood. I can't see an issue using it on metal and I in fact used some super fine wool to create a satin look on metal before.

Granted most research will show that there is not a direct correlation of wool and paper but I did find these pages when i was doing the reasearch....

SteelWool.biz _Grades & Uses
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publi...tion/HI_26.pdf

on the second page there you can compare the grit uses and the wool uses and try to line up the job you are working on.

hope that helps

It is possible the steel wool would leave some steel particles embedded in the wood and those particles begin to patina or rust, thus staining the wood.

I'm sure wool particles and oil are both possible causes. not every site I researched felt the same either. Some use steel wool in finishing, but I thought I'd say something just as a precaution.