Mirror polish on steel? (not knives)

S

SR_matt

Joined
Jan 4, 2007
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ok so its a bit off topic but since polishing is polishing the same answers can relate to knives

so quick back info, im taking metal working classes as part of my degree and we are doing hollow ware (metal vessels sunk and raised from flat sheets of copper, silver, etc) and we have to polish the faces of all our hammers (even when you blow 40 bucks on a good planishing hammer you still have to dress the face, sucks but o well, and my prof told us to just get ball peen hammers from harbor freight since we can spend half the price of one "good" and get 5 hammers that will work just as well). so we have good buffs and compounds but they never seem to get a perfect mirror finnish since we are stepping from 320 up to "polish".

so what is the cheap solution to getting a nice glassy mirror surface that people are using? i know some people hand sand up to like 5k, is that going to be the best option really?

thanks
-matt
 
Something is not adding up.

Can you be a bit more clear when you say "we have good buffs and compounds"?

If that is really the case, then your technique is off.

I polished stainless steel for several years and we used Jackson Lea compounds exclusively. The final 'greaseless' polish was 300 grit, after a series of higher and higher grits, each step taking out all the lines from the last grit. The last greaseless grit was use dry first on the softest wheel I had then I would apply a sniff of the grease compound to the 300 grit wheel to further lessen the cut. After that, on to the cotton buff, usually 14" airway buff with the Jackson Lea green stainless buffing compound.

It's all in the prep before you hit the buffing wheel.
 
The old way (and I'm sure theres better now) go to 400 grit, quick swipe on
black emery, light grey on medium felt, light green on rock hard felt, pure green
chrome rouge on a fairly loose buff = cloud free mirror.
Ken.
 
i dont remember the brand but they are greaseless (water based) compounds, i think we step 80, 120, 240, 360 then polish (i dont know the abrasive grit of it, but it is hard green and it is dry).

there are a few issues with what we are using, fist being that they are shared tools so while we all try to keep them nice but as one professor i had says "students can ruin anything". so while the buffs are pretty pure they probably have some contamination. the next is that the polish i am looking for is probably a bit nicer than what is commonly thought of as polished here, with planishing any texture on the hammer is transfered 100% to the metal that is hit with it, so even if you have it at a good 600 or 800 you really see the texture in the metal being worked, heck even a touch of dirt on the hammer causes a lot of texture

since day one of metal working i keep getting told step up to 400 then polish yet i always have issues with it even when i step up well and remove all the previous sanding marks and buff with polish well.

-matt
 
It sounds like your prep is good.

maybe try raking the buff wheel before you start buffing or even better, use a brand new buff. If you're going to 400 dry compound and then to buffing with the hard green, it will work, but hammers are hardened steel so you will have to go at it for a while. The compound does the cutting, if you're not re-applying compound every few seconds you will get nowhere. buff a few seconds or until it stops leaving residue and the re-apply the compound. It will work, it just will take a bit of time with hardened steel.
 
Polishing and buffing only makes things shiny.
If you have 320 grit scratches when you buff, you only end up with SHINY 320 grit scratches.
If you want a mirror polish, you ain't even gettin' started.
320-400-800-1200-1500-2000...removing all of the previous grit's scratches BEFORE moving to the next one, etc.
Then buff.
Buffing is NOT designed to remove scratches.
Anyone who tells you differently is cheating.
 
Yes Karl , but I think his big problem is shared tools . Been there done that ! Each step has to remove previous scratches but buffing wheels especially can easily be contaminated with grit.
 
When polishing new hammers to mirror I go straight from 180 to the green compound. If the greaseless compound is not properly applied to a sewn buff it is worse than useless. It should form a shell completely coating the surface of the buff and be allowed to dry for at least a half hour before use.

George
 
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