Thread: Buffing- raking, small wheels, removing 600 grit scratches and buffing hollow grinds

I've been experimenting with buffing a little recently and have had some trouble with the four topics I listed.

First, how often should one rake? And how do you guys know when to rake? And lastly, how much raking is necessary each time you decide to rake a wheel?

The next issue I had was with buffing hollow grinds. I tried buffing them spine to edge on a 6" wheel and that didn't work. Only the edge was getting buffed no matter how much I tried to tilt the edge away from the wheel. And if I titlted the edge too far away, the buffer would start skipping a bit cause it kept getting caught on the spine. I tried putting the razor on the wheel heel to toe and that didn't work either for some reason. The greaseless just wasn't cutting the metal like it did when going spine to edge.

Then it's on to the small wheels. I decided to try using a 4" wheel since the hollows were so tough to do with the 6" wheels. My buffer is a Baldor 114 (click here). With 4 inch wheels I could buff one side of a hollow grind the way I wanted, but there isn't enough room to buff the other side of the razor without bumping into the motor. Are the extensions that I can buy for this buffer?

And lastly, I wanted to ask about removing scratches from the 600 grit. I've buffed some razors only on 600 grit and then moved straight to black emery but couldn't really remove scratches. Do I just need to spend a ton of time with the black compound to remove scratches or is there something I should be doing in between?

I know there are a lot of questions here, but any answer to any of the questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

In my experience you need to rake when the wheels get loaded with chunks of greaseless after its used, the wheel looks unloaded but there are pieces of greaseless on it , I hope what I am saying makes sense.

For hollows I use 4" wheels, some people like to go heel to toe only some can go spine to edge, I think you need to experiment and see what works for you.

Taking scratch out of 600 grit greaseless can take a while, and in my experience very hard to do completely. People use sand paper to high grits after 600 greaseless, then go to emery , green stainless, white, CrO bar.

You can also go emery, green stainless, white, CrO bar.
I think removing scratches from greaseless is a good exercise in patience among other things.

+1 on everything Stefan said.

For greaseless, I rake when the wheel is unevenly loaded. If the compound comes off evenly, then I rake before reapplying it.

I have 2 rakes for grease based compounds, one for serious wheel dressing and one for fluffing (it's a piece of wood with finishing nails sticking out), so that alone could render my response unhelpful. I fluff if I see the fibers bunching (normally cause I goofed and added too much compound), I fully rake when the fluffing doesn't help or when the cut is diminishing.

On the subject of 600 grit scratches... Patience. That's all.
Also, it helps if you're using the right wheel. Sisal in the right diameter will cut fastest.

First of all, it is possible to add extensions to the spindles of buffers and grinders. The trick, however, is in finding a quality extension which will just fit the diameter of the existing spindle and lock tightly so as to have absolutely no runout.

Regarding buffer wheel sizes, you have to decide that based on the actual hollowing of the razor you are trying to polish. I drop down to 3" wheels and even miniature sizes when the need arises. Of course, when using smaller sizes the actual surface speed of the buffing wheels is lower so the polishing operations may take a bit longer. Be patient and don't try to make up for the lack of wheel surface speed by applying excess pressure.

Gotta be careful with full hollows - they get hot quick and they loose width quick too...

Rake when things get really uneven - I don't think I've raked my greaseless wheels yet, but I haven't really used them that much.

I do prefer to go toe to heal when buffing - if you work the edges of the wheels you can get into the hollows. But you can get arbor extensions... I'm pretty sure Caswell sells them, and I'd assume other places do too.

Getting out 600 scratches is tough indeed. With black, it'll take a long time. There are some grey stainless cut compounds that work well, but it still takes time. IMO, there is no point in using the greaseless and then buffing a razor up if you're not going to go for a mirror - I have yet to see a non-factory satin finish that I really like. (This is why I don't usually use greaseless - it's so much work to get out the scratches... until I figure out a good way to do it......)

Originally Posted by heirkb

I've been experimenting with buffing a little recently and have had some trouble with the four topics I listed.

First, how often should one rake? And how do you guys know when to rake? And lastly, how much raking is necessary each time you decide to rake a wheel?

The next issue I had was with buffing hollow grinds. I tried buffing them spine to edge on a 6" wheel and that didn't work. Only the edge was getting buffed no matter how much I tried to tilt the edge away from the wheel. And if I titlted the edge too far away, the buffer would start skipping a bit cause it kept getting caught on the spine. I tried putting the razor on the wheel heel to toe and that didn't work either for some reason. The greaseless just wasn't cutting the metal like it did when going spine to edge.

Then it's on to the small wheels. I decided to try using a 4" wheel since the hollows were so tough to do with the 6" wheels. My buffer is a Baldor 114 (click here). With 4 inch wheels I could buff one side of a hollow grind the way I wanted, but there isn't enough room to buff the other side of the razor without bumping into the motor. Are the extensions that I can buy for this buffer?

And lastly, I wanted to ask about removing scratches from the 600 grit. I've buffed some razors only on 600 grit and then moved straight to black emery but couldn't really remove scratches. Do I just need to spend a ton of time with the black compound to remove scratches or is there something I should be doing in between?

I know there are a lot of questions here, but any answer to any of the questions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Extensions are nice to have... but for now you could simply put the buffing wheel on the other side of the machine, then switch hands and buff the other side of the razor.
OR... get two buffing wheels... one of each side of the buffer.

Hope this litter bit helps.

I rarely rake the wheels that have greaseless on them as the greaseless evens out on re-application. I re-apply frequently or whenever small peices start to grab or come off. On the rest, I am constantly raking. I apply one second of compound frequently when buffing and rake every time I see the wheel start to build up or get shiny. This keeps the compound from coming off on the razor.

There is just not that much steel on a hollow grind razor. Many times you end up with a shiny blade that has some residual pitting vs. ending up ruining the blade or grinding a hole in it.

Have fun,

Lynn

Originally Posted by Lynn

...I apply one second of compound frequently when buffing and rake every time I see the wheel start to build up or get shiny. This keeps the compound from coming off on the razor...

This is the part I didn't completely get. What do you mean by the compound building up or getting shiny? And when it does do that, do you apply more and then really rake the wheel or the other way around?

Originally Posted by heirkb

This is the part I didn't completely get. What do you mean by the compound building up or getting shiny? And when it does do that, do you apply more and then really rake the wheel or the other way around?

The other way around. Rake and then apply the compound.