Thread: Making and Using Paper Buffing Masks

The next stage was to pierce the mask with some small holes with a sewing needle and then glue it down onto the razor with super glue.

I experienced no trouble at all with the glue-up, but I see (from my results) that the mask moved ever so slightly during that process. (I have some thoughts for better line-up procedures, but I have yet to work those out to my satisfaction.)

The next stage was to take the masked razor to the buffer. This time I gave it the Full Monty. I went through five grades of buffing compound (coarse to fine).

After the second buffing I thought I saw some little pinholes developing in the mask. I'm not certain if this was actually so, but I stopped, cleaned the mask (with some benzine) and then glued on some tiny snippets of paper with more super glue to be absolutely sure. Then it was back to the buffing wheels for the final three grades of compound.

I was absolutely right about how difficult it would be to get the dried mask-and-glue combination off of the blade. But this time I played it a little smarter. I layered some slices of paper towel on top of the mask, saturated them in acetone and wrapped the blade and soaked paper towel in a sheet of aluminum foil to prevent evaporation. After about ten minutes I unwrapped the blade to find the mask much looser and more pliable than it had been. This definitely helped get it off faster. In truth, fifteen minutes would have been even better for this 'soaking' time.

The last two images are of the final results. The first is from the flatbed scanner again for comparison to the original scan. The other is just a snapshot of the final buffed-out razor on my drawing table.

As I mentioned, the positioning could have been better, but the mask definitely did do its work. I was able to successfully buff out the blade without losing the design work. It can also be seen that the gold work did not suffer in the least from the super glue or the removal of the mask with the acetone.

I trust this proves useful to you all.

- Ignatz