Thread: Replacing sanding paper with compounds.

Allright, so I have met another South African on the forum and he has confirmed my worst fears, that you do not get sanding paper or micro mesh higher than 1200 grit. In fact the highest micro mesh we have is 230 grit. So I bought a rubbing compound kit from a huge hardware store, and it contains compounds to polish steel from a rough finish to a mirror finish. It has brown, black, green, pink and white compounds. So can I substitute fine sanding paper with rubbing compounds?

Do you have any more info on the compounds? Colors seem to typically fall into given ranges, but I'm not sure there are any hard and fast rules. I would recommend trying them all on some scrap steel to try to get them into the proper order.

My guesses would be the brown is a tripoli, the black is an emery, green chrome ox, pink and white are maybe two rouges or something similar.

Holli seems to be right on with what the compounds probably are but like he said I would check the packing to be sure. As for replacing sand paper I would say it should work fine if you put the compound on a piece of smooth glass or tile if trying to lap a hone. As for for working on a blade should work fine if you use a different rag for each compound and rinse the blade before moving on to the next compound.

Originally Posted by RazorFang

Allright, so I have met another South African on the forum and he has confirmed my worst fears, that you do not get sanding paper or micro mesh higher than 1200 grit. In fact the highest micro mesh we have is 230 grit. So I bought a rubbing compound kit from a huge hardware store, and it contains compounds to polish steel from a rough finish to a mirror finish. It has brown, black, green, pink and white compounds. So can I substitute fine sanding paper with rubbing compounds?

Yes a variety of compounds can be used.
Try them on scrap steel before trying it
on an expensive razor.

You can take a bit of wood and after shaping
to match the part of the razor you want to tidy up
you can then apply some compound and rub it in.

A machine shop supply house should
have a supply of what you need. Also look for
emery papers and crocus cloth. recreational boat yards,
jewelers, auto shops, paint shops, carpentry shops.

Okay here goes...

The white is for medium and coarse finishes on stainless steel, copper and iron.

The brown is for medium and coarse finishes on brass, aluminium and zinc.

The black is the same as the above brown.

The green is for fine finishes on brass, aluminium, zinc, stainless steel, copper and iron.

The pink is the same as the above green.

I hope this helps.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

Yes a variety of compounds can be used.
Try them on scrap steel before trying it
on an expensive razor.

You can take a bit of wood and after shaping
to match the part of the razor you want to tidy up
you can then apply some compound and rub it in.

A machine shop supply house should
have a supply of what you need. Also look for
emery papers and crocus cloth. recreational boat yards,
jewelers, auto shops, paint shops, carpentry shops.

Emery papers and crocus cloth is non existant in South Africa. The whole reason why I want to find out about rubbing compounds is because I cant find micro mesh. And only one company imports it at ZAR 1100,00 = US$ 150 for 9 pads, whereas a sheet of 1200 grit paper (which is the highest found in SA) costs ZAR 6,99 = US$ 1,00. see my point. It sucks living here. I cant even find nylon jaw pliers for my chainmailing here, and I have to import that too at the cost of an arm and a leg...

And its starting to peeve me because I see all the great work being done, but I cant replicate it, because of product limitations in SA.

It sounds like you have found Polishing compounds, most of us use these also but for polishing, they are not really good at cutting out rust and pitting... Many of us use Greaseless compounds from Formax for this in 80-120-180-320-400-600 then the polishing compounds

Look at this thread

http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...lustrated.html

I don't see why greaseless compounds would not be available even in SA just about any industry that polishes metal uses them...

You clearly dont know SA...I had to import my GF a airbrush system from america, because most meauticians here havent ever heard of it.


Nevermind, I phoned 3M and they have a person that can import it for me, but he said for the work I want if for, I can have some free samples.

I've tried using rubbing and buffing compounds by hand... it doesn't work very well at all.

I'm glad you found someone willing to provide you with samples. The higher grit sandpapers last quite a while. I bought a few sets from here:

Micro Mesh Finishing Products

I have had great results and the grits go from 1500 to 12,000 and pricing starts at $15USD. They're pretty light weight so, hopefully shipping doesn't kill it for you. The sample pack is what I bought.

For the higher grit sandpapers, try an auto paint supplier. Surely a body or car customization shop will sell them, or know where you can buy them. They would at least have 400-2000 grit wet or dry paper made for sanding metal.