Buffing Compounds

colu41

colu41

Joined
Dec 24, 2014
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1,598
So I've been doing a lot of trial and error with buffing compounds. And I have 2 questions.
I am looking for a compound that will cleanly buff out brass, and also light colored wood, &/or antler, without staining it, and having to sand it back to clean it up. I've seen a video before of a knifemaker doing this, but can't find what type of compounds they are using.
Also, looking for a black "jewelers rouge" that is apparently grease based? That stuff really made brass and cocobolo shine.
Any suggestions or tips for what I'm looking for would be great. I can send you a link to the video via PM if you want to see what I'm talking about. Its really amazing stuff.
I take my knife handles up to 600 grit before lightly buffing. So I'm not looking for a mirror polish. Just a nice even sheen.

*On a side note. Is staining the light colored wood with compound inevitable unless the wood is stabilized?
 
I use "pink scratchless" from Jantz for this. Others use "white diamond" which I still haven't tried but will based on their results. Both leave a clean finish on wood, if the buff being used is clean.

I try to stay off of any brass as much as possible with my wood buff.
 
I do use pink scratchless on most my wood handles. Just if that wheel touches brass it turns black instantly, which in turn, stains the wood black. I sent you the video if you have a minute. Its very interesting.
 
Tripoli compound.
I use green rouge of final finishing. If compounds stain your materials, there is a very good chance your buffing wheel is running too fast.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Tripoli compound.
I use green rouge of final finishing. If compounds stain your materials, there is a very good chance your buffing wheel is running too fast.
Click to expand...
My wheel runs very fast. :( and is not variable speed. But I got it for free.
 
Personally I hate pink scratchless. It's probably my least favorite compound out there. I've always found it to be bad about leaving reside behind.

Do yourself a favor, and buy a tube of ZAM from a jewelers supplier. You'll never go back to pink compound again.


You can use green compound on damn near anything provided it's sealed well enough. However Zam will save you much irritation from realizing your sealing wasn't quite good enough.
 
colu41 said:
My wheel runs very fast. :( and is not variable speed. But I got it for free.
Click to expand...
Surface speed is what matters with buffing, not RPM. A 4" buff on a 3600rpm motor will act the same as an 8" buff on a 1750rpm motor. If your buffer seems too fast, just put a size smaller wheel on.

I'll add though that unless you're buffing something that burns from the heat, faster is better. A 12" wheel is about the minimum that'll really do a good mirror on steel with a 1750 rpm machine. I've got baldors of both in my shop, and I'd never recommend anything but a 3600rpm machine to anyone. You can put a 4" buff on a 1hp high speed machine, but you can't put a 18" buff on a small low speed machine
 
Switch to a smaller buff if it's running too fast. You can get them almost any size you could imagine, and there's no reason with a soft buff to run a huge one. Stiff buffs on the other hand when buffing steel, it's convenient to have a larger diameter so it has less tendency to reduce flatness.

I use white/platinum rouge for almost all finishing, and it'll polish soft metals no problem, although you'll need to get the wood and pin flush at a reasonably high grit first. Hand rub to 1500 then buff is usually fine, with light pressure. It will leave behind some dark colored residue, but that is easily removed with rubbing alcohol or wd-40 (wd-40 works best for some reason, as long as it's not a problem for your handle material, which in most cases it isn't).

I should say however, that I use very little wood, mostly ivory, stag, pearl, and a few vintage phenolics, which depending I take to 1500-3k, depending, blue then pink polishing paper, then a quick buff (seconds, not minutes) with white on a loose cotton buff and done.

I never use brass, but I've never had an issue with bronze and white rouge.
 
Geoff Flato said:
Personally I hate pink scratchless. It's probably my least favorite compound out there. I've always found it to be bad about leaving reside behind.

Do yourself a favor, and buy a tube of ZAM from a jewelers supplier. You'll never go back to pink compound again.


You can use green compound on damn near anything provided it's sealed well enough. However Zam will save you much irritation from realizing your sealing wasn't quite good enough.
Click to expand...
I will definitely have to try that out. Thanks.

Geoff Flato said:
Surface speed is what matters with buffing, not RPM. A 4" buff on a 3600rpm motor will act the same as an 8" buff on a 1750rpm motor. If your buffer seems too fast, just put a size smaller wheel on.

I'll add though that unless you're buffing something that burns from the heat, faster is better. A 12" wheel is about the minimum that'll really do a good mirror on steel with a 1750 rpm machine. I've got baldors of both in my shop, and I'd never recommend anything but a 3600rpm machine to anyone. You can put a 4" buff on a 1hp high speed machine, but you can't put a 18" buff on a small low speed machine
Click to expand...

Forgive me if I'm wrong. But that seems backwards. If you need a slower "surface" speed, wouldn't you want a BIGGER wheel, as a 10" wheel takes longer to make a full rotation compared to a 4" wheel.
 
Not quite, think about a wheel on a bicycle. A 24" wheel will cover a lot more ground per rotation than a 12". So for each rotation of a buffing wheel, you've got a lot more surface passing your part with a bigger one.

It's not uncommon to see 18-24" buffing wheels in industry. Get one of those spinning at 1000 rpm and buffing will go very quickly.
 
Geoff Flato said:
Not quite, think about a wheel on a bicycle. A 24" wheel will cover a lot more ground per rotation than a 12". So for each rotation of a buffing wheel, you've got a lot more surface passing your part with a bigger one.

It's not uncommon to see 18-24" buffing wheels in industry. Get one of those spinning at 1000 rpm and buffing will go very quickly.
Click to expand...
Makes sense. Thanks. I'm looking at that Zam right now. Looks promising. Nowhere really says much about what its made from but, is it like a greasy type compound? Most people want to stay away from grease based compounds but, I want to try one out.
 
Zam is fairly dry and leaves almost no residue

If you want greasy, take a look at red jewelers rouge for fine, and a greasy Tripoli (there are many grades of Tripoli) for coarse.

Apart from specific applications though I find greasy compounds to be more of a pain that anything. On knives with different materials close together they usually just make a mess
 
I just used some blue compound i had laying around from HF marked for plastic. It did a great job on stabilized wood. Most likely because it's part plastic.
 
Given that I never use brass on my knives.
Until a few years ago I used more pastes for each type of material (steel, wood and plastic), then I spoke to SR Johnson, and I tried "white chrome rouge" on loose cotton buff, since then I only use this coumpond for everything. For the rest I agree with Javad, who writes great tips regarding dark colored residue cleaning.
I use "white chrome rouge" on cork belt too and in my point of view, it work fine.
 
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