Thread: Greaseless compounds

So far, I've done 2 razors - a Henckels and a W&B and it's been very successful... with the right amount of patience.

Two important items:

1) Try to alternate grinding directions with each grit so you can clearly see when one grit has removed all the 'scratches' from the previous grit. Otherwise, when you get to the final stage of polishing with black jeweler's compound after the 600 grit, you might discover there are still fine scratches showing from one of the more course grits that had been camouflaged by the finer scratches from the proceeding lighter grits

2) After finishing with the final greaseless (e.g. 600 grit) and doing a final polish with black jewelers compound, have a little patience. Depending on how hard the steel is, it can take a little time to really polish out the marks from the 600 grit. I find that, as I work black compound on the blade surface, dipping the blade in water to wet the black jeweler's compound helps it to cut/polish a little quicker. The same holds true for a follow up with green jeweler's compound if you decide to go the extra mile an use it after the black...

BTW - while the muslin wheels work best for greaseless compounds, the hard felt wheels seem to work best for the jeweler compounds.

This is just a very quick pic, but you can see the mirror surface in the Henckels (top blade) and the scratches still left in the W&B (lower blade - I was in a rush with this one, trying to beat the cold weather (my only work areas are either a poorly lit, unheated garage... or in the nice bright sunlight on our deck) and so wasn't paying close enough attention to 'scratch pattern removal' between greaseless grits...)




And some before shots...

The Henckels (top blade):




The W&B:




Hope this info helps.

John,

Thanks for your excellent posts. This information helps considerably. Now we have links for greaseless, and buffing wheels for dremels.

And great pictures by the way. Have you posted them in the Custom Builts and Restorations section. Your blades look great.

I recently got a bench grinder set up as a buffer. I've been using Caswell black emery and the blue polishing greaseless compounds for a few weeks with good success. Caswell managed to get me some 120 grit greaseless compound during the week so I'll be giving that a try out tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Maxi

John,

Thanks for your excellent posts. This information helps considerably. Now we have links for greaseless, and buffing wheels for dremels.

And great pictures by the way. Have you posted them in the Custom Builts and Restorations section. Your blades look great.

Glad I could be of some help. Once spring rolls around, I think I may try to do a video(s) on my method/experiences to post in the Wiki. (Too cold out to work in the garage/on the deck now, the only 'workspaces' available to me since I live in a townhouse).

And thanks for the thumbs up on the blades.

As for posting them in the Custom Builts and Retoration thread:

• I'm still debating about posting pics of the Henckels. I'm kinda bummed about the blade - came out really nice after polishing but I let a little to much swarf gather on my DMT while I was starting to build the bevel and it put a few scratches back into the blade. Not too bad, but still enough to tick me off (and be embarrassing) after all the polishing work...

• The W&B will probably get posted in the that thread in the spring. I'm working on some very different and unique scales for it now (so I can shave with it this winter). And I am definitely going to unpin it from them and do a proper re-polish with the greaseless and jewelers compound when the weather breaks. Once I'm happy with the polish job on it, then I'll post in the restoration thread.

John,

I too live in a tiny space. My girlfriend and I are in a small one bedroom condo downtown Toronto. Every time I set up the hones, we can't use the counter to cook. If I pull out my kit and dremel, I can't use the stove either!

I long for a space, even just a small one, to be able to leave my tools out, and just head in for an hour of so during an evening. Unpacking and packing every time I want to do something with a razor is a serious PITA.

One day.....but that day is not today.

Nathan