Staining on D2 Steel Blade

jeffbird said:
Use Puma Paste made by the Puma Knife company. It will shine carbon steel blades with patina to shiny, stainless will look like new. Flitz paste is a decent second choice, but Puma Paste is even better.
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Here's one I worked on this morning. I cleaned both sides with Magic Eraser/alcohol, but only used Flitz on the right side. The Left side has a very interesting patina that I liked and left alone - there is some roughness, but is added material, not pitting. Do you think this would this be a good candidate for Puma Paste? You can see on the shiny side that there is an area at the bottom where Flitz couldn't do the job.

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That looks very nice Scott.
With one side finished to a shine, making the other side match seems like the obvious path.
However, only you know how you want the finished blade to appear.
The rust eraser likely is more abrasive than paste. So might as well use the same tools on both sides to achieve matching finishes.
 
jeffbird said:
That looks very nice Scott.
With one side finished to a shine, making the other side match seems like the obvious path.
However, only you know how you want the finished blade to appear.
The rust eraser likely is more abrasive than paste. So might as well use the same tools on both sides to achieve matching finishes.
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I love these little fixed blade hunting knives. They are really great bargains, as many of them have never been sharpened or used - just look terrible in photos. Here's a better comparison of the two sides, after I just gave it another scrubbing. Still a little surface residue:

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I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading here that Flitz works with a chemical reaction and not abrasives.

Mother’s Mag Wheel Polish is another good abrasive based product.
 
runscott said:
Timely find: this huge 'Edge Brand' Solingen Bowie was up in the garage rafters of an old house we bought. I scrubbed it and then used Flitz to get off all the surface rust, but it's still ugly. Is this a job for Puma?, or sandpaper :) But seriously, I've got every grit up to 3,000, plus a variety of sharpening stones. I was considering sanding until it gleams. The only issue would be the word 'BOWIE' on one side of the blade.

Here are the 'before' pics.

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0000 steel wool.
 
Ebbtide said:
I could be wrong but I seem to remember reading here that Flitz works with a chemical reaction and not abrasives.

Mother’s Mag Wheel Polish is another good abrasive based product.
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There's nothing in Flitz that could polish based on chemical reaction alone. If it worked like that, you could just apply it and leave it, then rinse it off to polish. It requires rubbing (abrasion) to do the work. And the MSDS for Flitz paste does show it contains aluminum oxide - that's linked below (see section 3 in the document, listing aluminum oxide). And they specifically warn against using it on plated items, as it will rub the plating off - see the quote below, from Flitz's own FAQ page. That doesn't happen without abrasion.

Something else to notice, if you try it: If you let the paste dry to a fine powder, then rub it on metal, it'll polish. That powder residue holds the abrasive.

Flitz likes to advertise their products are 'non-abrasive'. But it's a misleading claim - it's just a very fine & gentle-working abrasive - the scratch patterns produced by it are very fine and unseen by naked eye, but would be seen microscopically. Any product that would be truly & completely non-abrasive on any material couldn't work at all for polishing or removing oxides (tarnish, patina) on any hard materials like metals.

Quoted from Flitz's FAQ page (bold highlight added for emphasis):
"Flitz is not dangerous to use on any metal, but the actual polishing is what rubs the plating off."
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That particular statement^ is very cleverly worded. It seems to narrowly qualify the product's so-called 'non-abrasive' characterization. In other words, the product isn't abrasive by itself, until you rub it around on the item being polished. It would also affirm the product's inability to alter anything based on a chemical reaction alone. If it just lays on the surface without any rubbing, it won't do anything harmful to the metal.

MSDS HERE -->> https://store-imlukvc.mybigcommerce.com/content/SDS - PolishPaste_TS_06-13-22.pdf
 
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K80Shooter said:
I also learned a lesson about using flitz on a shotgun. Never again!
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Flitz has its place. I look at it this way - I'm going to restore a metal item ONCE;i.e-I buy it used and in such condition that it needs polishing. If I take care of the item, it shouldn't need polishing again for a long, long time - perhaps never. I used to buy quite a few antique revolvers, and I used Flitz on most of them...ONCE. There is very little removal of metal, and it is certainly not noticeable, and...it will only be done ONCE. Same thing for smoking pipe nickel and silver ferrules. I've been restoring them for years, and have never had to do it a second time. Same for 1940's Willie Hoppe pool cues with metal joints.

So people can knock Flitz if they want, but they could be missing out on a useful solution. But there are certainly plenty of alternatives.
 
runscott said:
Flitz has its place. I look at it this way - I'm going to restore a metal item ONCE;i.e-I buy it used and in such condition that it needs polishing. If I take care of the item, it shouldn't need polishing again for a long, long time - perhaps never. I used to buy quite a few antique revolvers, and I used Flitz on most of them...ONCE. There is very little removal of metal, and it is certainly not noticeable, and...it will only be done ONCE. Same thing for smoking pipe nickel and silver ferrules. I've been restoring them for years, and have never had to do it a second time. Same for 1940's Willie Hoppe pool cues with metal joints.

So people can knock Flitz if they want, but they could be missing out on a useful solution. But there are certainly plenty of alternatives.
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Not really knocking it but people need to know what can & will happen with extended use.
You are correct when you say that using it ONCE is ok but I never saw a warning on anything stating that it will harm things with extended use.
By the time you notice anything the damage is done.
 
K80Shooter said:
Not really knocking it but people need to know what can & will happen with extended use.
You are correct when you say that using it ONCE is ok but I never saw a warning on anything stating that it will harm things with extended use.
By the time you notice anything the damage is done.
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I've never seen or heard that it harms anything with extended use. Please give details about your shotgun. In the case of the gold-colored coating on pipe bands, both examples I know of involved the same model - a Peterson 314 that was a tobacco coupon giveaway back in the 1980's. I suspect the coloring was extremely light and weak, and possibly could have been scrubbed off with a magic eraser; however, because of that experience I wouldn't use Flitz (or any other polish) on a plated item.

As I stated, I've only used it once on each item;however, I've used it heavily on stubborn silver pipe bands before, and saw no degradation at all of hallmarks, while still removing nasty spots.

But I don't know what problem you had with your shotgun - maybe it was such that certain warnings need to be stated. Did it have to do with blueing? I've used Flitz on blued S&W revolvers with no problems, and we know that the blueing rubs off of the sharp edges eventually, just by hand contact.

Sorry for being so verbose - I just hate to see people avoid certain products or techniques because of generalizations on forums that I haven't found to be entirely accurate.
 
runscott said:
I know two very experienced smoking pipe restorers who have rubbed a thin layer of gold-colored plating off of a nickel ferrule (mine with Flitz). We both learned our lesson in one go.
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I got this pipe man. Anyways I don't know anything about it but was told it might be worth something. Would you be the guy to send a pic to?
 
I also don't knock Flitz as a product. It is a good product - I use it occasionally with good results.

But I wish they'd be more forthright in their product description and instructions, about how polishing actually works - by abrasion - and the risks associated with certain uses of it. The 'non-abrasive' claim is doing them a disservice I think, and seems to imply they're trying to hide the risks involved with some uses and instead favoring not scaring off potential users by admitting its mild abrasive potential.
 
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Obsessed with Edges said:
I also don't knock Flitz as a product. It is a good product - I use it occasionally with good results.

But I wish they'd be for forthright in their product description and instructions, about how polishing actually works and the risks associated with certain uses of it. The 'non-abrasive' claim is doing them a disservice I think, and seems to imply they're trying to hide the risks involved with some uses and instead favoring not scaring off potential users by admitting its mild abrasive potential.
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Merriam Webster's definition of 'abrasive': "causing damage, wear, or removal of surface material by grinding or rubbing."
Since all polishes are technically 'abrasive' in that they have to remove some amount of material by rubbing in order to do anything useful to metal, they would all have to state that basically they damage the product that they are supposed to be enhancing. Given that, I don't think that claiming to be 'abrasive' would really communicate useful information to purchasers.
 
runscott said:
Merriam Webster's definition of 'abrasive': "causing damage, wear, or removal of surface material by grinding or rubbing."
Since all polishes are technically 'abrasive' in that they have to remove some amount of material by rubbing in order to do anything useful to metal, they would all have to state that basically they damage the product that they are supposed to be enhancing. Given that, I don't think that claiming to be 'abrasive' would really communicate useful information to purchasers.
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I generally agree with that - especially in highlighting that all polishing implies some degree of material removal by abrasion (rubbing). With ingredients like aluminum oxide, that rubbing is much more aggressive due simply to the hardness of the AlOx itself, and therefore quicker to do damage in the wrong use of it.

Seeing that some users have already been burned by discovering the abrasive nature of it in the damage done after the fact, and also that the perpetuation of the 'non-abrasive' claim continues to have some people insisting it isn't abrasive at all, is doing some damage of its own to informed use of it and even potentially to the reputation of the brand itself. That's why I believe Flitz is ultimately hurting their own cause in how they describe it.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Seeing that some users have already been burned by discovering the abrasive nature of it in the damage done after the fact, and also that the perpetuation of the 'non-abrasive' claim continues to have some people insisting it isn't abrasive at all, is doing some damage of its own to informed use of it and even potentially to the reputation of the brand itself. That's why I believe Flitz is ultimately hurting their own cause in how they describe it.
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Sure, stating that any polish is 'non-abrasive' is technically incorrect. Perhaps it even gives them an unfair advantage over competitors whose products are also technically 'abrasive'. The important thing for us is to be able to correctly describe what will happen when we use it on various products.

As far as some users being burned through their discoveries, I'd genuinely like to hear detailed descriptions, such as what I gave regarding a nickel pipe band.
 
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