Polishing blades antique and otherwise

[crazydiamond]

My friend was sitting at work and thought that sheep wool would make a good polishing agent. So, we tried it when he got home and it works! It will slowly but surely take off the staining. It is better with the rougher wool but softer wool will still work.

[dirtychrome]

Makes me consider why steel wool is named such. As an alternative for using natural wool to polish with?

[Deerhunter1995]

Welcome to srp, diamond.

[Caledonian]

Sheep's wool taken from a barbed wire fence would probably be best, as manufactured woolen articles have the natural oils removed. I can remember when lanolin (i.e. wool oil) was hailed in commercials as the new miracle ingredient in haircare products. They accidentally forgot to mention that it was extracted from the town drains of Bradford ("Capital o' t' wool world.") I think that is where farmers tried to play a joke on John Brown of Kansas, but he recognised the sample as wool from a poodle.

In the traditional rust bluing process for firearms in the UK, chemical treatment produced a fine, non-pitting coating of brown iron oxide, which was converted into black by boiling in water, and then removed with nothing more abrasive than woolen rags.

A product which might be useful is bronze wool, available through gunsmiths'suyppliers such as World's Largest Supplier of Gun Parts, Gunsmith Tools & Shooting Accessories - Brownells . Ordinary steel wool should be considerably softer than razor steel, but it might come close if it is work-hardened by the cutting and curling process of its manufacture, and I am sure it could damage an edge more easiy than bronze.