Flitz Gun/Knife Care

[Wavester]

A friend recommended Flitz for caring for knives - was wondering if the forum regulars recommend this product..?

 

[samuraistuart]

I am only familiar with their metal polish, as picture in the tube. Good stuff, nothing wrong with it. Very fine, not very abrasive at all, compared to other polishes.

 

[Rappy]

I use brasso to clean, well brass!
doesn't work with todays super steels though

 

[Spey]

I have kept some on hand over the years for various duties.

I have read a number of posts over the years stating Flitz contains no abrasive, and find few who would strop with it, but yet ...

Well, earlier today I worked on my S/S 1967 J.Marttiini fixed blade. First time this knife had see a stone in decades. Went 220 Diamond stone to 600 Diamond stone to Flitz on a wood strop (that would be a freebie paint stir stick from our local hardware store). Barely visible without just right light reflection, you can see lengthwise scratches left to right in the blade from the leather sheath. Most of the 600 Diamond scratches are gone from the secondary bevel after a few minutes on the wood strop loaded with Flitz. Can easily read print font in the edge, and it is fairly sharp (shaves easily, whittles hair, cuts hair cleanly, and is on the verge of tree-topping).

I have yet to find info on the size of the abrasives in Flitz but believe they are fairly small (Al[SUB]2[/SUB]O[SUB]3[/SUB] Aluminum Oxide).
Depending on what you're working with (metal, etc.) you may wish to experiment for yourself and see what jobs you might like it for ;-)

Hope this helps answer your questions,
Christopher

 

[BonhamBlades]

love it! Best stuff in the world to get rid of corrosion and rust...

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Flitz paste polish IS abrasive, but very fine. A BF member inquired to Flitz's maker a while back, and they'd said it was aluminum oxide at ~3µ or so. Same member posed the question to the makers of Simichrome (another AlOx paste polish), and they confirmed it's about ~9µ. He posted this info in the thread linked below:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/928750-Flitz-and-semichrom-msds-info

(If you consider it, there's no such thing as a true metal 'polish' that isn't abrasive at all; it couldn't work, if so. Polishing metal is done by removing metal at a very fine scale, producing a very fine scratch pattern; so it has to be abrasive to work at all.)


David

 

[WCEDC]

I've used it to remove some corrosion/rust. It's awesome. I've recommended it to a friend who used it to restore an old Case knife that was rusted and frozen shut. That, along with some Rem oil, worked for him.