Toothpaste polishing.

paranoidsentry

paranoidsentry

Joined
Apr 1, 2010
Messages
261
I was just wondering, does anyone else polish their knives with toothpaste? And if so what technique they use?

I put a little toothpaste on the blade and use a toothbrush to polish in small strokes along the blade and then remove with a cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol/
 
paranoidsentry said:
I was just wondering, does anyone else polish their knives with toothpaste? And if so what technique they use?

I put a little toothpaste on the blade and use a toothbrush to polish in small strokes along the blade and then remove with a cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol/
Click to expand...

So how does it look after the polishing?
 
I've never used toothpaste as a polish for my knives but before I knew much about abrasive compounds I used it to give a light polish to the bore of my paintball gun barrel. It worked really well but it took a lot longer than using an actually compound. Now days I generally use simichrome for jobs like that.
 
I've used the standard red automotive grade rubbing compound and it seems to work ok. I'd like to try some ofhter stuff in the future. I just don't need a high polish on a satin finish blade.
Dorito Monk said:
What can I say? I like to live on the edge. :D
Click to expand...

Oh you, you are on a roll now... :)
 
In the past, I used toothpaste to polish some things, such as plastic watch "crystals." However now I'll used a buffing compound, either on my WorkSharp, or perhaps on a Dremel.

For final finish, I like RenWax micro-crystalline was polish.
 
Trust me toothpaste is abrasive enough. If I had some before and after pics I would show you. It just takes time.
 
For many years I have used toothpaste to polish the inside of Stainless Steel Syringes. These were used to fill bottles with medicine at a pharm. company. Very mild abrasive. The tolerances were so tight that I needed a VVF abrasive or I could not get the parts together to lap them.
 
just stick with white rouge compound, its only like 3 bucks at home depot! it will work better and be less confusing!
 
paranoidsentry said:
Trust me toothpaste is abrasive enough. If I had some before and after pics I would show you. It just takes time.
Click to expand...


how much time ?

i've just tried on my M4 military, applied the toothpaste on the blade and rubbed the blade with a white, clean rag. no dark staining on the rag at all, and i'm not even sure that this faded the patina at all ... and i rubbed until the toothpaste dried, added some water, rubbed again ... no effect. i don't see this working on a strop if it can't even remove patina from the blade.
 
I use the white jewelers rouge and/or the green paste. Works well for me...My dad used to polish his watch crystals with toothpaste, I guess it worked for him.
 
Toothpastes are formulated to be abrasive enough to plaque and stains but not enough to damage enamel. I would think that enamel is less wear resistant than the better steels in our knives.

Oh BTW, IIRC tooth enamel ranks around 5 on the Mohs scale.
 
This thread made me curious on the concept, so I did a little Googling. There seems to be a wide range of abrasiveness in toothpastes, depending upon the brand and variety (the 'whitening' types seem to contain harder abrasives). Most toothpastes use abrasives that are too soft (talc, baking soda) to damage tooth enamel, much less steel. Others use silicates (stuff that makes sand & glass), which might be hard enough for some steels, but not necessarily all.

Still others use fine aluminum oxide, which is definitely hard enough (ceramics and many sanding/grinding/polishing media & compounds are made of aluminum oxide). I hope none of that stuff ever finds it's way onto my toothbrush.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
This thread made me curious on the concept, so I did a little Googling. There seems to be a wide range of abrasiveness in toothpastes, depending upon the brand and variety (the 'whitening' types seem to contain harder abrasives). Most toothpastes use abrasives that are too soft (talc, baking soda) to damage tooth enamel, much less steel. Others use silicates (stuff that makes sand & glass), which might be hard enough for some steels, but not necessarily all.



Still others use fine aluminum oxide, which is definitely hard enough (ceramics and many sanding/grinding/polishing media & compounds are made of aluminum oxide). I hope none of that stuff ever finds it's way onto my toothbrush.
Click to expand...

Any suggestion for an aggressive toothpaste that'll take down some of my epoxy finished blades, or is that too ambitious?
 
waaayy too ambitious.

the one i used with no result at all is a whitening one.
 
Folderguy said:
Any suggestion for an aggressive toothpaste that'll take down some of my epoxy finished blades, or is that too ambitious?
Click to expand...

Only suggestion: use something that's actually made for the job at hand (grinder, belt sander, wet/dry sandpaper, Scotch-Brite, steel wool, etc.). Even the most aggressive toothpastes, I suspect, would be mediocre at best for polishing steel. A few of them do contain the same TYPE of abrasives, but in terms of quantity (minimum, to avoid absolutely destroying enamel) and aggressiveness (particle size), they'd have to be a LOT milder, lest the folks using them for their intended purpose scrub their teeth down to nubs in nothing flat. If anything, one of the more aggressive pastes might come in handy, in a pinch, for some stropping compound (IF your edge is already pretty good anyway). If any more metal had to be removed, I'd consider it a waste of time.

There's a HUGE difference in hardness and wear resistance, between teeth enamel (pretty soft, fragile stuff) and modern, hardened knife blades.

And, for epoxy on a blade, I'd think it wouldn't take a very aggressive polishing compound (rouge, maybe) to remove that. It only needs to be harder than the epoxy, in that case, which isn't very hard compared to steel.
 
Maybe the real question here is what grit diamond powder can I add to my toothpaste to make my edges push cut tissue paper, and make my teeth shine supernaturally white like them people on TV? ;) I quit using CrO2 and the rest of the compounds for hard steel shortly after getting diamond abrasives.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top