Polished up a couple of 110’s on new low speed polisher

[Christopher_2]

Bought a BF800C low speed bench buffer setup. Used a soft cotton wheel and red jewelers rouge and blue rouge, fine and extra fine. Blue says for polishing plastic, red is for gold plated jewelry and others soft metals. Wheels are cotton wheels that are sewn in a few places to stiffen them up a bit. You can definitely tell which one has led a rougher life.


Starting picture

Both of these have been polished left with red and blue, right just red.

Left - rough life for brass - red jewelers rouge
Middle - brass in bette shape - red rouge then blue
Right - new from Menards in plastic packaging. Nothing it’s new.

 

[Christopher_2]

 

[Jeff O]

Looking good.
I like to wet sand them with 1500 or 2000 grit sandpaper wrapped around a popsicle stick, first. If it's really rough, I might start with 800 or even 400 grit and work up to 2000 grit. That means less time on the buffer which minimize surface distortion and wood erosion. Especially where the wood meets the brass.

 

[Christopher_2]

I was thinking of trying these, maybe the ultra fine version. I have a 1x42 belt sander.

https://www.combatabrasives.com

Also found these, my logic is I can always use something extra fine and have to go up, hard to put metal back on and take out deeper scratches.

https://micro-surface.com/product/micro-mesh-belts/

 

[Jeff O]

Depending on your skill level, I feel like you might regret taking a belt to such a fine knife. Things can go wrong so quickly. Wet sanding with a block or popsicle stick can get the surface ready for the buffer surprisingly quickly sometimes. For me, I enjoy the hand-work and don't mind if it ends up taking a while.

The only time I'll take a power belt to a 110 is if I'm thinning out and rounding the sides for a slimmer profile (epoxy will be required to hold the scales on with the pin heads ground off). From there, it's wet sanding and on to the buffer. Ends up better than the typical factory finish, for me, this way.