Buffing and Polishing

These costly little "systems" of cloth wheels and buffs and a couple bars of coloured "stuff" were developed for metal workers and jewellers. Then, someone with Marketing in mind found a new marketplace .... woodturners.

So, just to get the terms down, here are a few definitions that you might want to add to your shop talk. If you can't afford some of the "systems" that are being marketed, and want to leave the rouge, tripoli, and emery to the jewellers, try using the old standbys: pumice and rottenstone, which can be applied using paraffin oil as a lubricant. The residual paraffin oil can be wiped off most finishes when done, or you can mix the pumice or rottenstone sparingly with wax (use one that doesn't dry in 5 seconds) as a polishing compound. A couple bucks will get you a pint of paraffin oil, and any hardware or paint store should have pumice and rottenstone. Add an old T-shirt, and some wax, and there you are, probably $50-$60 the wiser, with your own "Personal" finishing system.

Now, here are the terms. I'm using buffing = polishing (some folks use a sequence of cutting, polishing, then buffing, going from coarse to fine abrasion).

A buffing or polishing compound consists of various fine abrasive particles held together by sticky wax in the form of bars or blocks, that are held against spinning buffing wheels for a second or two, or rubbed by hand onto buff sticks to embed or "charge" the wheel's fibres. It is the compound that does the polishing, not the fabric.


There are 4 different levels of polishing compounds.

Starting from the coarsest, they are:

• Cutdown Compounds
  These include the brown tripoli and bobbing compound

• Intermediate Compounds
  Gray tripoli, graystar, white diamond, crocus. platinum tripoli, yellow bobbing

• Polishing Compounds
  Red rouge, yellow rouge, hard white, white rouge, black rouge

• Super Finish Compounds
  Blue magic, green rouge, fabuluster, zam

Rouge
A product traditionally made of iron oxide, pulverised and graded, used in jewellery work. Darker-colored, coarser grains are called crocus and are used for grinding. the finer grains are called rouge (French for "red") and are used for polishing steel and precious metals. Rouge is often mixed with a binder and caked into a bar form for easy application to a buffing wheel.

Green rouge
primarily used in final finish buffing operations on stainless steel, steel, brass, aluminium, nickel, and chrome. The green rouge is a chrome oxide, and is considered the best all around lustre compound.

White rouge
The white rouge is the softer, calcite alumina type. Primarily used in the final finish of steel, stainless steel, and zinc. This compound is also a favourite in colouring aluminium and brass.

Red rouge
Primarily used in the final finish (colouring) of gold and silver, it is the finest of all rouges. The abrasive is Ferric Oxide. It also produces an excellent finish on brass.

Crocus
An abrasive material consisting of coarse grains of iron oxide that is used for grinding metal before polishing. Finer grains are called rouge.

Iron oxide
Ferric oxide; iron dust; when pulverised, washed and decanted, it is turned into rouge for polishing metal.

Tripoli
A porous, decomposed siliceous rock which results from the weathering of chert and siliceous limestone.. It is a natural mineral classified as a silica. It is used as an abrasive for preparing jewellery work for polishing. The powdered stone is usually mixed with a binder and moulded into cakes for easy application to buffing wheels. The most popular general compound for cutting down and buffing base metals. Gives a smooth, satin finish to copper, aluminium, pewter, gold and even hard plastic surfaces.

Emery
A common abrasive material that consists of a naturally occurring mixture of corundum and magnetite, the magnetic oxide of iropumice - a light weight, glassy volcanic rock that is crushed into a powder for use in jewellery work for producing non-polished finishes on metal. It should always be used with water for lubrication. It should also be rinsed frequently.

Pumice
A light weight, glassy volcanic rock that is crushed into a powder for use in jewellery work for producing non-polished finishes on metal. It should always be used with water for lubrication, and should also be rinsed frequently (for jewellery applications),. For woodworking, oil can be used for lubrication (try paraffin oil).

Rottenstone
A light, porous, somewhat friable, siliceous rock used for polishing steel and other metals. It consists almost entirely of silica, with a small percentage of alumina and other impurities, and is derived from siliceous limestones after the removal of the calcareous matter. For woodworking, use oil for lubrication (try paraffin oil).

Types of Abrasives

• Alumina
  Aluminium Oxide, both fused and calcined , produced from Bauxite.

• Corundum
  Naturally occurring alumina similar to rubies or sapphires.

• Emery
  Naturally occurring mixture of corundum, magnetite, hematite and quartz.

• Neuberg
  Chalk Mined in Neuberg on the Danube, mild abrasive consisting of silica and alumina.

• Rouge
  Iron oxide - very little abrasive effect - used on precious metals.

• Silicon Carbide
  Synthetic abrasive sometimes known as Carborundum

• Tripoli
  Naturally occurring in the U.S.A., Spain and Italy, it consists mainly of silica, used for polishing non-ferrous metals.

• Vienna Lime
  Consists of mixture of calcium and magnesium oxides - now rarely used.