Thread: Walking a W&B though the Buffers - Illustrated

Originally Posted by Mijbil

sure, fingertips count - if they get shiny, glossy, buffed!

also: 1) really curious to see t'OTHER side of the clean baby, with the beautiful sparkling etching? dont be like those ebay sellers who "forget" to show a picture of the blade.

There is NO etching on this blade I took it right off there at 80 grit, however if I were going to keep etching I would have done a very light 600 grit buff and then run it through the tumbler for a week


and: 2) thinking about the compounds....this inspired me to go and order the dremel (the tumbler should be here tomorrow - see, and I havent even started playing with that!), and I know you can use the jewelers comopunds you use later on (e.g. rouge, emery, etc) with the dremel, so why not the fromax? I mean, a spinning wheel is a spinning wheel, right? thought it does seem like the fromax only comes in HUGE bars. do you know anything else that comes in the range of grits like that (i.e. that can be a sandpaper substitute, not just a polisher/buffer substitute)? thanks again...sorry for all the questions in your giggle thread

I personally am just not a huge fan of Dremels myself, I rarely use mine on razors.... I am just not sure how you could "load" the greaseless compound on one, it really requires some torque to do it, maybe someone else has tried it and can help...

Don't worry about questions, that is exactly what these threads are for, many ideas are hatched by people bringing up questions...

Glen, your workshop looks great. Makes my workshop look like a doghouse.
Thanks for the nice and informal pics on that nice W&B too.

Do you use brake cleaner between different compounds to remove all the stuff thats left from the previous grit, or just for overall cleaning?

Originally Posted by Sailor

Glen, your workshop looks great. Makes my workshop look like a doghouse.
Thanks for the nice and informal pics on that nice W&B too.

Do you use brake cleaner between different compounds to remove all the stuff thats left from the previous grit, or just for overall cleaning?

Sorry I maybe didn't make that more clear, but yes, in between every stage of the polishing compounds, after I finish with the greaseless those have to be cleaned off before progressing to the next grit and the brake cleaner does the job fast and dries quickly with no residue... BTW the brake cleaner trick came from when I was working on guns it works great there too as a parts cleaner/de-greaser...

Thanks for this post Glen. I really enjoyed the photos of your workshop - those are alot of buffers you got there! That wade and butcher is such a beaut, you did an amazing job, i love it.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I decided to take pics of this W&B "American" Razor as I tried out my new buffer bench...

These are the before pics...

A nice 7/8 + blade with almost null for hone wear and a tiny small bevel that isn't honed into 27 different levels



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Nice work. I think I was bidding on that exact razor a few weeks ago on ebay. If so, I'm glad it cleaned up so nicely. Great looking work shop by the way.

Thank you very much for this informative thread. I really enjoyed the progression of the thread and i learned a lot.

P.S. your work shop rocks

Originally Posted by freyguy

Nice work. I think I was bidding on that exact razor a few weeks ago on ebay. If so, I'm glad it cleaned up so nicely. Great looking work shop by the way.

good stuff glen... thanks for the post

[QUOTE=gssixgun;555076]I personally am just not a huge fan of Dremels myself, I rarely use mine on razors.:

Well, it would look too much like a cooking class or something if you had a bench of dremels laid out instead of bench wheels. You couldn't set up your artillery in quite the same way.... Speaking of which, when I look at that picture, it looks like you have a Home Depot version of R2D2 in your shop there as taskmaster for the bench-wheel-sweatshop.

But more seriously: I'm just curious why it is you're not into dremels on razors? I mean I can see that your set up might just be superior, if you have the time/space/resources/etc to invest (like, as if you were trying to make a *living* from the stuff or something ) - compared to a little hand-held tool? And why why why did you ditch the etching? It was pretty cool and in good shape, no?

And thanks for your reassurance about the questions - I just dont want to overstay my welcome.

Originally Posted by Mijbil

But more seriously: I'm just curious why it is you're not into dremels on razors?

Speaking just for myself i would prefer much more devices with much lower rpm. With high rpm Dremel it is much easier to make mistakes.
I use every now and then Dremel when restoring knives or razors but only for sanding. Not polishing.
It is possible take tune up Dremel so that you can adjust the rpm speed as low as you want, but i've been too lazy to ever get started making such.

I will let glen answer, because I am not very good at a detailed explanation.
but... Part of it is safety and it seems a lit easier to damage a razor. Especially if you dont pay attention to the rotation fo the felt wheel...

I also found that buffers just work better.

You dont have to go that complicated. my "buffer" setup is about as simple as you can get.

Originally Posted by Mijbil

But more seriously: I'm just curious why it is you're not into dremels on razors? I mean I can see that your set up might just be superior, if you have the time/space/resources/etc to invest (like, as if you were trying to make a *living* from the stuff or something ) - compared to a little hand-held tool? And why why why did you ditch the etching? It was pretty cool and in good shape, no?

And thanks for your reassurance about the questions - I just dont want to overstay my welcome.