polishing nickel silver.

joe9knives

joe9knives

Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
221
first of all, polishing doesn't look spelled right. anyways, when I polish a knife with nickel silver bolsters it turns black along with whatever handle i have on it. how do i keep this from happening. I currently use white rouge with a sewn buffing wheel. Thanks in advance.;) ;)
 
That's the problem with buffing NS and probably just buffing almost anything in general, it will "dirty" whatever else is next to it in the handle assembly during the buffing process. Try taping off anything else you don't want to get dirty. I use mineral spirits to clean up the black stuff.

There are probably other better ideas out there but that's what I do now.
 
What Ed said. I would also suggest raking your wheel often. the old waxresidue is a lot of the problem. You will start to see black specks on the bolster. This is a good indication that there is an old spent, wax build up on the buff. these specs on the bolster will cause streaks in the finished product. You can gee a wheel rake at sheffield knife makers supply. Mike
 
I have used a lot of NS and just don't polish it. You can get a very good - not quite mirror - look by going to 1500 paper. I have found that polished NS shows every little scratch while a sandpaper finish seems to show them a lot less. If you have to polish it, do it by hand - carefully, with a cloth - without hitting the handle material.
 
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