The Absolutely Best Finish on Brass & Steel

[Rhyolith]

After going down through the grits (to 1200 most of the time) I am wondering if there is anything better than brasso for getting a really good final finish?

I am aware of putty like “Peak” which I think gives an equivalent finish but not better; theres also that better version of brasso “Carr & something...” but again this is more just faster not necessarily better finish.

Any suggestions?

 

[marcros]

what are you trying to finish? I have limited experience, but I have polished brass on the lathe several times. if I had a lot to do, or did it regularly, I would get a set of polishing mops and compound designed/reserved for metal. The reason I don't is because I use the mops on wood and don't want to contaminate them.

Not sure whether a polishing mop in a drill would work the same if the item was too big to pick up.

 

[Rorschach]

1200 isn't fine enough if your final finish is brasso.

 

[Trevanion]

I get very good results from Autosol polish in a toothpaste tube. I like it because you don’t really need to go much higher than 600 grit for a very good finish and can be applied with a bit of rag rather than a polishing machine.

 

[Bm101]

If polishing by hand take a look at 'micromesh' Ryolith.
Remember to alternate the direction between grits. Depending what you're working on you can bodge together a little polishing mop of some variety to stick in a battery drill for efficiency. One I use is a circle of mdf cut with a hole saw with a bolt for a spindle and an strip of trizact belt glued on the edge. It works fine.
Lots of cheap polishing heads available.
Just used this seller converting a liddlealdi grinder to buffer. Seems to be well regarded on here. I was very happy.

https://www.thepolishingshop.co.uk/poli ... for-metals

Another vote for autosol here.

Cheers
Chris

 

[sunnybob]

using rotary mops you can go through the three polishing compounds, brown, blue, green. Then with a separate mop go to solvol autosol.
Be aware now with solvol, there is a cream, as well as the everlasting paste. If you want perfection, use the paste first then the cream. but you must keep separate mops for each stage, or youll never be able to repeat the shine.

 

[Robbo3]

Another product for cleaning brass is Duraglit, an impregnated wadding. They do a separate version for silver. How they compare with Brasso et.al. I don't know.

 

[Trevanion]

Another product for cleaning brass is Duraglit, an impregnated wadding. They do a separate version for silver. How they compare with Brasso et.al. I don't know.

I didn't even know that stuff was still made, not that I was looking for it.

 

[AES]

Yup Duraglit is still around (last time I looked).

Also an industrial version called Wadpol. (When I was in the RAF a good few years back now, if you were a naughty boy, one of the punishments would be to clean the - bare ali - skin of an aircraft with Wadpol, especially if it was off to a BoB Open Day or something. Hard work but pretty long lasting, considering aircraft are outside in all temp and weather extremes).

And +1 for Solvol Autosol (in the tube; I didn't know there is a cream too. I presume that it's just an even finer version of the tube stuff sunnybob?)

 

[sunnybob]

The cream is even finer than the paste, hard to believe as that is. when i bought my wet stone sharpening machine it came with a tube of cream to put on the leather honing wheel.

 

[ED65]

1200 isn't fine enough if your final finish is brasso.

If hand polishing I would agree. If buffing using compound, it's fine (sorry for the pun).

Rhyolith, if you're buffing by hand there are numerous reports that Brasso ain't what it was, so in a direct head to head you can probably expect to get superior results using Peek (and it's an awesome stropping compound too). I have vintage Peek and Brasso so I can directly compare the results and Peek was basically the superior product then, now it's possible it's streets ahead.

Another product for cleaning brass is Duraglit, an impregnated wadding. They do a separate version for silver. How they compare with Brasso et.al. I don't know.

Duraglit is Brasso-impregnated wadding. Or I should say was, as Duraglit is no more and it's now Brasso branded (and Silvo branded for the stuff for silver).

 

[Rhyolith]

Thanks for all the input. I have ordered some much finer sand paper (down too 7000p). Might get some peak too.

Does anyone know the equivalent grit of peak/brasso etc? I am thinking there is a reasonable chance its coarser than 7000.

 

[AES]

I've just been polishing some ali channel. I started ("ended up") with 2000 grit wet and dry, and from then on have used a really simple cotton mop (in an electric drill on a horizontal stand). On that I started with the equivalent of Solvol Autosol (paste in a tube), then Brasso and then "finally finished" with the red jewellers' polishing paste that came with a set of Dremel accessories. That was the order I used because I THOUGHT (only a guess mind) the above was in descending order of coarseness. Final final finishing was with a piece of soft dry clean cotton cloth by hand.

The result is OK and so far (finished about a week ago) there are no signs of the ali tarnishing.

As I say, the above was all guess work as I didn't want to invest in the fairly expensive polishing sets including various grades of mops and polishing media which I know are available from specialists. The above job is for the windscreen frame of a child's pedal car so I wasn't TOO particular, and for that use I think the result is good enough.

But if it was for something really important to be seen by critical "professionals" I would have gone more deeply into it and probably bought the proper gear.

Back to answering your original Q, I THINK (don't know for sure) that Brasso is a bit less coarse than Solvol Autosol and coarser than the Dremel polishing rouge, but that's purely guess work and I have no idea of the relevant "grit" number/s.

P.S. If you do use Brasso, do NOT do what I did and apply it to the mop! Apply it fairly thinly to the job and rub it in a bit first by hand. If you do it "my way" you end up with Brasso stains all over the wall, floor, and ceiling!!!!!!!!!