Which is better Flitz or Metal Glo?

[stjohn24382]

I am interested in cleaning up and polishing some dirty used knives I bought,folders and fixed blades. After a good scrubbing with Dawn and hot water which metal polish,cleaner do you members think does a better job
Flitz or Metal Glo? Or are there others you use?
Thanks.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Simichrome is the standard.

 

[Jens Schuetz]

Depends where you want to strike the balance between cleaning and preserving the surface.

Flitz seems harmless but doesn't remove a patina as good as brasso which appears more aggressive. These are the only two I've used so far.

Will also try Metal Glo and Simichrome since I've no experience with those yet.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Brasso uses silica as the bulk of it's abrasive. Silica is a lot less hard than the aluminum oxide used in Flitz or Simichrome. The grit size of the silica might be larger, which could make it work more aggressively on less-hard metals (brass, nickel) or oxide (patina) layers on simple carbon steel, which isn't very hard. But the aluminum oxide in Flitz and Simichrome, though possibly much smaller (Flitz = ~3µ and Simichrome = ~9µ according to mfr info), is about 3X as hard as silica, therefore more aggressive on harder materials, like wear-resistant and hardened steels.

Don't know about Metal Glo, as to what abrasive they use. It's advertized for use on stainless steels, among other metals, so it might also be aluminum oxide. If so, it should at least do OK. Silica-based products wouldn't do very well with stainless steel, or most hardened cutlery steel in general.

Simichrome and Flitz are both very good. If playing it safe on choosing something, I could easily rely on either one. I tend to believe Simichrome works more aggessively at the beginning (for cleaning), then tapers off in aggressiveness somewhat, to a high polish finish. Flitz seems a litte less aggressive starting out, needing a little more 'elbow grease' for cleaning oxidized surfaces, but still finishes very nicely.


David

 

[hank_rearden]

quick glo contains pumice (silica) which breaks down into very fine particles. it's ok for touch up and polishing soft steels. but it can't polish s30v.

 

[Deer]

Rockstead says to use liquid Pikal on their knives. Id assume its extremely high quality if its what they recommend for their finish.

 

[malaverdiere]

Brasso uses silica as the bulk of it's abrasive. Silica is a lot less hard than the aluminum oxide used in Flitz or Simichrome. The grit size of the silica might be larger, which could make it work more aggressively on less-hard metals (brass, nickel) or oxide (patina) layers on simple carbon steel, which isn't very hard. But the aluminum oxide in Flitz and Simichrome, though possibly much smaller (Flitz = ~3µ and Simichrome = ~9µ according to mfr info), is about 3X as hard as silica, therefore more aggressive on harder materials, like wear-resistant and hardened steels.

Don't know about Metal Glo, as to what abrasive they use. It's advertized for use on stainless steels, among other metals, so it might also be aluminum oxide. If so, it should at least do OK. Silica-based products wouldn't do very well with stainless steel, or most hardened cutlery steel in general.

Simichrome and Flitz are both very good. If playing it safe on choosing something, I could easily rely on either one. I tend to believe Simichrome works more aggessively at the beginning (for cleaning), then tapers off in aggressiveness somewhat, to a high polish finish. Flitz seems a litte less aggressive starting out, needing a little more 'elbow grease' for cleaning oxidized surfaces, but still finishes very nicely.


David

Would you consider Brasso for stropping? Say if someone doesn't have any access to any of the real stuff (e.g. green compound)...

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Would you consider Brasso for stropping? Say if someone doesn't have any access to any of the real stuff (e.g. green compound)...

In a word, NO. I tried it once, just to confirm my assumptions about it, i.e., that the silica-based abrasive wouldn't handle abrasion (polishing) of steel well, if at all.

An easy test, to see how well a compound works for stropping, is to put some on a clean sheet of hard-backed white paper and strop on it. Compounds that are able to actually polish steel by abrasion will leave easily-seen trails of swarf (black or grey) on the white paper. Aluminum oxide compounds like Flitz or Simichrome will immediately take steel off and deposit it in easily seen black streaks, in such a test. I couldn't produce any such swarf trails on paper with the Brasso, even in stropping simple low-alloy stainless or even simpler carbon steel. Any benefit to the edge could only come in scrubbing loosely attached bits of burrs or other weakened metal from the apex; and that same result can be accomplished on a bare stropping media alone, without compound (like paper, bare leather, denim, etc). So, I found Brasso to be not worth the effort for stropping a hardened steel blade. As the "Brasso' name implies, it's better suited to softer metals, like brass or nickel, or copper, etc.


David

 

[Jens Schuetz]

The Brasso does something chemically besides abrasion.
Put it on patina spread it and even if you rub it off very gently it's gone to some degree. There's also that strong ammonia smell.
Flitz requires more rubbing. Way more. Probably because it's more of a mechanical polishing compound?

 

[Jason B.]

I always thought Flitz was a bit coarse, I prefer Mothers Mag polish as a general polish but when possible I prefer to use an abrasive polish suited to the task.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

The Brasso does something chemically besides abrasion.
Put it on patina spread it and even if you rub it off very gently it's gone to some degree. There's also that strong ammonia smell.
Flitz requires more rubbing. Way more. Probably because it's more of a mechanical polishing compound?

The 'chemical' behavior is just removing oxide on the surface, which is softer, i.e., less abrasion resistant, than the steel under it. Sort of in the same way vinegar can loosen & remove rust or oxide. Still not enough actual abrasion (cutting) of the steel, however, to be very effective as a stropping compound, if at all. That's where Flitz and Simichrome will do much better with aluminum oxide grit. Simichrome and Flitz also likely rely on some chemical action (maybe the ammonia itself) for similar 'cleaning' of oxide on metals. But for actually abrading and polishing the steel, necessary to clean up scratches & such, and to thin & refine an edge on a strop, the hardness of the aluminum oxide grit in the polish is what wiil be doing the work, and where something like Brasso, with it's silica grit, will fall short, being only about 1/3 as hard as the aluminum oxide.


David

 

[Jens Schuetz]

The 'chemical' behavior is just removing oxide on the surface, which is softer than the steel under it. Sort of in the same way vinegar can loosen & remove rust or oxide. Still not enough actual abrasion (cutting) of the steel, however, to be very effective as a stropping compound, if at all. That's where Flitz and Simichrome will do much better. Simichrome and Flitz also likely rely on some chemical (maybe the ammonia itself) for similar 'cleaning' of oxide on metals. But for actually abrading the steel, necessary to clean up scratches & such, and to thin & refine an edge on a strop, the hardness of the aluminum oxide grit in the polish is what wiil be doing the work.


David

Definitely. Was just trying to clarify what I meant earlier with brasso being more agressive when cleaning a patina.
It was just based on what I saw and not on any knowledge about what kind of abrasives are in there.