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