Thread: toothpaste?

so the wife is a dental assistant. Made me think. Oh no here it comes...Instead of buyiny a power toy err tool that I wont use for anything else why could I not use a spinning toothbrush for the final polishing stages? not that the Dremel isnt useful, but I already have a slew of tools, and the wife will not be smiling with another "necessary" trip to Home Depot. Much easier to appear to concious of my oral hygene. Besides she thinks its cute that I have a "hobby".
Anyway, do these things spin fast enough to be useful? Also I know toothpaste is a fine abrasive (cant use it on dentures lest your pearlys be scratched) but will it do anything to hard steel? if not what can I use? I keep hearing of this "Jewlers Rouge", where can I get this or something similar? What can I use to get that "mirror" finish?

Thanks for any help!

I have used a battery powered tooth polisher, with a rubber tip, to polish away dark "devil's spit". I used Turtle brand polishing compound. It works on some of the dark areas, not all.

"Mirror Finish" can be a lofty goal, depending on the razor's current condition. A tumbler and/or much work with wet/dry sandpaper may be required.

I believe "Jeweler's Rouge" is Ferrous Oxide, or rust. I have some on a paddle strop. I use it after CrO.

If you've progressively sanded the job to a fine enough grit a rag & metal polish is all you need to finish.

Fellow RDA here. It'll work to clean the gunk out of an old DE, but for polishing razors, forget it....already tried.

There is a real study showing the Abrasiveness Ratings of various toothpastes.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the rating for baking soda, which i use for general scrubbing-it's practically non-abrasive relative to tooth enamel.

Lots of variation-choose your pastes more wisely now. "Pepsodent" rates 150 and is available locally for a buck.

Toothpaste Abrasion Ratings | Dental Designs of Salt Lake

Yeah toothpaste is one of those old strop dressing you here about along with fire ash

Originally Posted by Castel33

Yeah toothpaste is one of those old strop dressing you here about along with fire ash

But toothpastes are now rated numerically as to specific abrasiveness.

Ashes are not.

This could prove much more helpful to those who like to experiment and tinker than guessing games as to ingredients and effectiveness (of any substance). Ratings vary from 8-200. This information is not on the package.

Granted that the rating was generated using tooth enamel, but we also use abrasives common to glass and gemstone shaping and polishing. The main difference would be that they measured the amount of enamel removed, not the resultant finish.

Wiki says: Tooth enamel ranks 5 on Mohs hardness scale


I don't know what that means, have wood to cut. CYL

Yes, and a full face shield and dremel for the aggressive fun!

Thanks Wade,,,I use toothpaste for many types of cleaning & never thought about the different grit levels,,