Polishing/buffing, 18th century style

[jwh1947]

Did you ever notice how a sidearm wears at the muzzle and high points, due to contact with the holster?  Why are the better holsters lined to keep leather from metal? How does a barber sharpen a razor?  What does this tell you?  A good strip of leather (discard snippets are great) is a tremendous polisher.  Throw in a little pumice and you can approximate 1000 grit paper.   You can also build up heat when playing with acrylics and topical applications.  Cost, just about nothing.  JWH

[smart dog]

Hi Wayne,
I have used a leather strop to sharpen my knives and chisels for almost 30 years.  Leather is a fine medium but I use methods for polishing metal described in Espingarda Perfeyta, the gunsmith manual written in 1718 by Portugese smiths.  They used sticks lubricated in water or oil and dipped in some abrasive powder.  They also used stiff brushes dipped in abrasive paste made from water, abrasive powder (rottenstone) and soap.  It works very well once the file marks are gone.  I can shape the sticks any way that I need.  I visited the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art recently and looked at the gun collection.  I was amazed at how well the wheellocks were polished while preserving the crisp lines and edges.  It really put me to shame.

dave   

[hyltoto]

My son, an Industrial design and model maker, was shown how to make an awesome polishing compound with chalk and wd-40. His teacher was from Germany.

[flintriflesmith]

I think a lot of what looks to our modern eyes like very high quality polishing or buffing on European guns is actually burnishing.

Burnished surfaces just sparkle!

Gary

[rick landes]

I used powdered mica on an oiled leather strap to polish out the last cannon that I had made. Talc will work also if you do not have a source for powder mica.

[jwh1947]

None of this is rocket science, but it sure is interesting and useful for those few of us that are interested in old bench procedures.  Thanks. JWH