Polishing for a completely flat edge, no micro-bevels.

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benjamin831

Joined
May 7, 2020
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3
Hi,

I have something a little different here and its not a knife. But unfortunately I don't know where else to ask this question, since everyone here are such masters of the craft.

In the picture below, you can see a small scratch at the edge of the screw hole on this stainless steel piece. I'm trying to polish it away and bring it back to a flawless mirror finish (it's a little greasy right now from my skin). I've been using abrasive paper wrapped around a plastic rod and polishing it in an up and down motion. But unfortunately, I'm already seeing some micro-rounding of the hole edge as well as the edges around the surface.

Is there a way to polish this as flatly as possible without micro-rounding the edges? I heard people use wood, tin, or glass to polish steel. Is that true?

Would purchasing a borosilicate glass rod and some compound be the way to go?


Thank you so much


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No, you need some give to your tool. I would try a metal, wood, or plastic rod, all that matters is the shape and it is stiff, wrap it with surgical paper tape, and apply the polishing compound to it. Kreisler explains it in post #12 of this thread. Only use one layer of tape as you don't want too much give to reduce smoothing the sharp edges of the hole and spin the rod/tape in either a dremel tool or drill, you probably don't want to go too fast. This is what I would try, there may be better ways.
 
Use a wooden paint stick, or a popsicle stick.
Coat it lightly with Simichrome polish and just polish it.
 
It's hard to be sure from the pic, but I don't think polishing compound will be enough to remove the material needed to get rid of that ding on the edge of the hole. And the face you want to sand is curved, which complicates matters.

Based on what I think I'm seeing, first you need to decide if you are comfortable removing enough material needed to make it dead flat. If so, then you would need to go at it very slowly and deliberately with something that is also dead flat. Don't go up and down, that's how you get rounding. Just go in one direction, I suggest up. Place the file on the surface without moving it, and only move it once you are sure it is flat. Once you get it flat you can go to higher grits to get it polished.

And make sure no abrasive/teeth are on the side! You don't want to mess up adjacent surfaces.
 
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