I've been sanding my brass off!

[rootnuke]

I've filed all my brass parts seams, pock marks, chigger bites and edges. Sanded with 180, 400, 600 and 800 grit sand (emory) paper.

However all my brass parts still look "scritchy". I've been looking around the forum and it seems that the general feeling is that a Dico brand or like cloth wheel mounted into a 1/2" grinder with polishing compound is the way to get that true shine.

It seems there are many ideas of what level of polish to have on a flintlock. Some say 400 and be done with it. Some say 800 or 1000 grit. Some say bench grinder, leather oil, rouge and 2 months later you will have something so bright you can track it from outer space.

I think on a 1770 Early Lancaster just having a light polish WITHOUT the super-fine scratches will be era correct and look good.

There is a tool company here in town that has cloth grinding wheeels and sand paper up to 1500. I have not looked around to see if they carry buffing compound there also.

Any pearls of wisdom would be apreciated. ::

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

rootnuke -

I think it is a personal thing - I stop at 400 and then use 0000 steel wool after that. It's also easy to touch up later with 0000 if you want to keep it bright. ( I like my brass to be tarnished however )

 

[musketman]

I've filed all my brass parts seams, pock marks, chigger bites and edges. Sanded with 180, 400, 600 and 800 grit sand (emory) paper.

I would suggest you go to a polishing compound (like FLITZ) next and buff away, that's how I keep my spitoon nice and shiney...

 

I used 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper from a Wal-Mart variety pack for the final sanding. It gets dirty quickly so I used a fresh piece frequently (that didn't sound right) and then I use NeverDull for the final mirror finish. I don't polish it anymore after that and let it age naturally. I think that finishing brass furniture shows the most rewarding results above all the other steps in rifle building. Have fun!

 

[Slowpoke]

I use emory cloth to get the final stratch out....

Honestly I don't get all the scratches out, I could, but I don't. They don't bother me and in a year they'll be covered up with tarnish an more will be added. The main thing I do is get it very smooth with files, sand paper, and finally emory cloth. I polished all the brass on my new rifle in 3 hours. (Buttplate, trigger guard, lock plate, thimbles and nose cap.)

Finally, something that might get overlooked.... be sure you always sand in one direction and us something hard behind the sandpaper like a piece of wood or a file. You'd be amaised at the amount of people that can't use a file or sand paper correctly. Not because they can't, but because noone has showed them

S'Poke

 

[rootnuke]

I purchased a 6" cloth buffing/polishing wheel and a Jewelers Rouge buffing compound. :: WOW, unbelievable!

Check out the butt plate comparison of 800 grit emory paper vs. polishing wheel.

Here at end of webpage ... http://www.rootnuke.com/index.pl/butt_plate_installation

other parts polished group photo at end of page...
http://www.rootnuke.com/index.pl/triggerguard

 

[Slowpoke]

Good grief.... unbelievable.... you are the man!!!!

Can you give me a website or something to look at to see exactly what you are using to get brass to look that polished.

S'Poke

:applause:

 

[rootnuke]

There is no one place I can tell you as to where to learn about this. I just keeped on till I figured it out.

What I did was type in some search terms in the forum like

jewelers rouge
polish wheel
dico

There was talk about polishing and stuff. I saw a couple of pictures of the polishing wheel and it looked like you could just get you a plain-jane 6" grinder and change out the grinding wheel for a cloth buffing disk.

(1) 6" Grinder 49.95

Then I looked around some more and found this stuff called Jewelers rouge which is a stick that has kind of a waxy-putty feel. It seems there are all sorts of types of rouge. Some are for silver, gold, soft metels. Then there are some for polishing plastic? what?

(3) cloth buffing wheel disks @ 4.95 each (you cannot mix rouge on the wheels, you have to use a rouge on a wheel, no mixing.

(1) stick of Jewelers rouge (for soft metel) $1.95

So I says to myself,hmmmm. If I mounted the cloth buffing wheel in this grinder and applied some of this rouge to the wheel...then started in on the brass what will it do.

WOW! this is comething else.

The key is preparation! you need filing, 180, 400, 600, 800 grit then polishing, filing touchup spots then 180 and 400 on the spots then polishing the spots.

I was able to bring a 800 grit butt plate to a mirror finish in about 10 minutes.

It was slicker than owl snot on a door knob!

Go to www.google.com and search on polishing, cloth disk, jewelers rouge

here is a place in a lookup for jeweelrs rouge
http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/CTGY/jeweler-rouge /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

This is a huge time saver!!!!!

 

Fellas, all of this is real nice but keep in mind that we tend to over finish our guns. The origional makers did not have the cloth wheels and emory compounds we can buy at any hardware store. Didn't even have sandpaper! They scraped and burnished and oil treated the wood dependant on the price the customer was paying. Those little tiney scratches would probably have been evident in a new Dickert rifle, and the wood might have had a few flat spots in it. The oil finish probably did not glisten like a mirror and after it had some bear grease rubbed in it probaby had a pretty distinctive smell.

Remember that shiney stuff scares the game. After all that work now you have to fume it wih amnoia to dull it down!

 

[LRB]

If you are looking for a flawless finish, DO change the direction of your sanding everytime you change grit, or you will not be able to tell when the scratches from the previous grit are gone. I'm with liver eaten Johnson. I don't think the furniture needs to be polished to perfection, and his way sounds pretty right. I often go a tad more, but not much. Be very careful with buffing. It is a lot more dangerous than most realize, especially with a high speed buffer as you describe. The wheel can snatch parts from your grip and slam them back into you. Had that that happen with a knife blade. No damage, I was lucky. You can also over polish critical edges, or make dips and waves. You can buy a black rouge from knifemaker suppliers than will cut 400 grit scatches out easily in brass and then follow with yellow for a high finish. The green chrome rouge is a little faster than the yellow, but not quite as fine. Good luck and do be careful.

 

[rootnuke]

I know about the over polishing. I intend on just letting it tarnish over time.

I know one thing though, If the old masters would of had one of these fangled finishing contraptions you would be hard pressed to talk'em out of it.

My grandfather used to tell me while I was working on something, "Don't keep messin' with it til you break it"

Push comes to shove I can always hit the brass with 800 grit and kick'em around the workshop floor a while.

 

[Flintshooter in Indiana]

I'd pertneer be asshamed fer you fellers to see my stuff. I ain't never had nothin' that looked like that. I'd be afeered to take it down off'n the wall fer I'd scratch it up and stuff.

I got big dings in my stocks and scratches and the like, but I shoot 'em and hunt with 'em and that's the way they look...................used. If I had somethin' like that my friends would say "that's too nice fer you". :haha:

 

[Zonie]

rootnuke: Now that you have the grinder, buy yourself another cloth wheel and a stick of "Stainless" compound.
You will find it works very well on brass and steel alike.
You also won't have to sand the brass past the 600 grit paper to get the same mirror finish.
Use wet/dry paper and do the sanding with some water to keep the paper from loading up with brass particles. You will find it lasts a lot longer before it wears out.

Using the Stainless compound, you can also polish your sear and tumbler notches to a mirror finish without changing the shape.
Do this gently or it will round off the sharp edges.
When your done, the sear/tumbler surfaces will look like little mirrors and the trigger pull will be smoooooooooooooth! just like it should be.

Also, while I'm talkin', polish from the center area out towards the edges and change the angle of polishing often.
If you polish from the edge towards the center the wheel will grab the part and fling it halfway to Tombstone.

 

[Zonie]

Those interested in more information about polishing should look for my Posting on polishing in the Builder's Bench Forum. It's a few months old but it might be interesting to you.
I shall again try to post a link:
POLISHING

 

[Slowpoke]

I've never sanded mine down that smooth before, I was just wondering for the next time my wife wants her silver polished.

I don't like mine to be all that shiny either..... but Squire Robin Hewitt (Forum Member) takes the cake with his Edward Marshall rifle.... I believe he gold plated his rifle furniture.... :blah:

 

[rootnuke]

My buffer / polisher is a little 6" grinder. The end covers have since been replaced and the little transparent covers and guides have been added (not pictured)

The reason I boght this grinder is that it had a little speed adjustment for rpm on the front.

I guess if you had an old 110 or 220 electric motor that had a proper rpm and could figure out a way to mount the cloth disk it would work too. But when you figure the time, just buy or convert a grinder. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[rootnuke]

My polished furniture.

 

[rootnuke]

Using the Stainless compound, you can also polish your sear and tumbler notches to a mirror finish without changing the shape.
Do this gently or it will round off the sharp edges.
When your done, the sear/tumbler surfaces will look like little mirrors and the trigger pull will be smoooooooooooooth! just like it should be.

Thats a great idea, as soon as I get the barrel, trigger and lock inlet and bolted I will work to make it smooooooth as described.

 

Normally I don't care what a guy does with or too his stuff, but I will take exception here. PLEASE do not try to polish the sear and tumbler surfaces of a lock using a buffer wheel and compound! This is against the recomendations of every lock manufacturer, every procedure manual, every lock tuner and common sense in general.

These surfaces must be square and straight in order to function safely. One can not control a buffer well enough to insure the precise angles necessary to maintain the safety of the parts relationship. The relationship of the angles between the sear and cocking notches of any firearm are the only thing standing between the shooter and accidental discharge.

Polish all of the brass and iron furnatue on the outside of the rifle that you want too. Round off all the edges and erase all of the lines and create all of the wood to metal gap you can stand, but please take the extra time and use the proper stones to smooth out the trigger!

If you do use the buffer on the sear and tumbler please hang a sign around your neck warning the other shooters that you have done so. You can have the range to yourself for that day.

 

[rootnuke]

hmmmm, ::

Well ghost says don't polish the lock works because it will make the lock unstable and zonie say's polish the lock works to make them smooth.

These are 2 extremely diametricly oposite opinions.

I think I will continue to work on other stuff and see if this hashes out either way or in the middle. ::