Buffing wheel - use on it?

Fine abrasive called buffing compound.

It won't work if you don't use a polishing compound.

"Soap" is the colloquial name for "polishing/buffing compound" and is nothing to do with washing.

Like "sand paper", soaps are available that are designed for various materials and for various "cuts". They also come in varying degrees of greasyness (essentially soap is grease lubricant bonding an abrasive). The mop also makes a big difference, depending on felt, stitched or loose, and what cloth it is made of.

You can get small bars in cheap multi-packs giving you a selection. In general the quality is what you pay for it. On the other hand, don't bother getting jeweller?s rouge unless you got a soft twill cotton mop... a plain woven mop alone will be more abrasive than true rouge.

Anything that says it gives a mirror finish is not going to cut much; it is really burnishing. Anything that cuts aggressively is going to leave a slightly fogged finish.

Depending on what sort of shape & texture you are trying to polish and what sort of finish you are after is going to determine which soap to use.

Oh, and you ought to use only one soap on each mop. And clean the part well between mops. This is to avoid contaminating the finer mop with course grit. But if you have only one wheel, you could try the finest polish first and get coarser until you find the finest polish that does most of what you want of it, then just use that one soap for the whole job.

Beware that it is quite easy to destroy textures and patterns if you didn't mean to. So don't go in hard with coarse soap. And yet polishing will not be very effective at getting rid of scratches and pimples. Polishing really comes after the use of paper abrasives for dealing with such defects.

Examples:

Does anyone else remember Mepo, which was broadly similar to Brasso but intended for general metal polishing rather than just brass/copper?

I only _just_ unforget it... :-)

appreciated. I'm just trying to polish up a brass door knocker. I've used buffing wheels before, a long time ago in various workshops, but never, ever had to set a wheel up to use.

There are many companies that will do polishing kits, eg

Many times I actually started the process with the finest wet&dry and then progressed to the mops. As previous poster suggested be careful as you can destroy easily with the course abrasives.

article.

NT

ish

could we quote this on the wiki too?

NT

Remember it well. Can you still get it?

Probably not.

Examples:

Feel free. See also

I've found Autosol slightly less messy since it is a paste. I use that and the polish wheel on a Dremel type thingie for polishing small brass bits. I'm sure the proper stuff is better - but I can't buy that from Halfords in small quantities.

eg

Do correct the spelling first though.

It's coarse, not course.

Think I'd get a tin of Duraglit and elbow grease. B-)

Duraglit is glass wool (or similar) impregnated with Brasso.

NT

of coarse :)

NT

Steel wool did cross my mind but I think it would be to coarse and leave far to many scratches on the surface that would take an age to polish out. It may also leave bits of iron embeded in the (soft) brass that would rust...

We don't know the condition of this knocker but unless it's really badly corroede to the extent of having pitting I'd not touch it with anything coarser than 800 grit wet 'n dry.

For something that small the Dremel and Solvol Autosol (car chrome cleaner from Halfords) combination works very well. Soak the knocker in vinegar first to remove hard oxides. And protect things from the flying Autosol - although it's not *that* bad.

knives back to pristine shininess again.

Must be about 12 months, or over since your opp. How are you feeling these days?

Dave