JEWELER'S ROUGE

[Terry Wiegand]

This might sound like an unusual question for you guys out there, but I've got to ask it anyway.  Can a person polish stainless steel screw heads using jeweler's rouge?  I have used polishing compound on oval and round headed brass screws with very good results.  I have put the screws in my drill motor chuck and it works great.  The secret to that is to be sure and get the wax on them right away and they will stay nice for a long, long time.  I am just wondering if jeweler's rouge will work on stainless screw heads the same way.  And if this is something that will work, where would a person go for the rouge?  In case this is not the way to go, what would you guys reccommend?

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[KongaMan]

Dunno about jeweler's rouge in particular (that's an awfully fine abrasive), but you can absolutely polish stainless screws.  Get a spiral-sewn cotton polishing wheel that will fit your bench grinder and a bar of green compound. Put the screw into your drill chuck, fire up the grinder, and go to town.
 

[FLYER15015]

Terry,

I bought my white (fine) and red (a bit rougher) jeweler's rouge bars from our local True Value Hardware store.

Amazon and Ebay would also work for the rouge and the polishing wheel.

 

Mike in Colorado

[Vila]

I used all stainless bolts, nuts, and screws on my last restoration and polished the stainless screw head for all the screws that replace original chrome plated screws.  They look like chrome plated screws and I did nothing other than polish them approximately 5 years ago.

 

I used 6 inch buffing wheel on my spare 6 inch grinder and used the stuff pictured below.  As I recall I got it at Lowes. 

 

 

[Gary W]

Hi Terry!

The answer is yes.  

I was taught to first use  TRIPOLI ,  followed by ROUGE.

Tripoli to get rid of surface imperfections, Rouge for the high shine and polished finish.

 

I still use the same combination with soft cotton wheels on the lower speed of my buffing wheel.

 

(When I was taught, we used leather wheels with these products and what a great finish!)

 

Gary

[Terry Wiegand]

Thanks guys for the input here.  I have some stainless, oval head screws that will hold the footrest brackets to the rear floorboards on my '16.  I am thinking that when these slotted screws are polished out they will be really close in appearance to nickel plated screws.  Gary, is the TRIPOLI the white colored material that the platers use?  I am thinking that the rouge is a rusty red colored substance?  You guys have been a big help.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[Gary W]

Yes.  First the white Tripoli, then the finer, Red Jeweler's  Rouge.

 

But some tripoli may be reddish also.  I think it's the cutting properties that classify it, not so much the color.

Mc Master Carr has bars of "Brown" Tripoli

 

Edited September 27, 2017 by Gary W (see edit history)

[27donb]

2 hours ago, Gary W said:

Yes.  First the white Tripoli, then the finer, Red Jeweler's  Rouge.

 

But some tripoli may be reddish also.  I think it's the cutting properties that classify it, not so much the color.

Mc Master Carr has bars of "Brown" Tripoli

 

 

Use the right compound for the material you are polishing, and you will be happy with the results. 

 

For decades I have used an open buffing wheel on my pedestal bench grinder, and it can be a hazard.  This may be stating common sense, but buffing on a high speed wheel takes concentration.  Train yourself and tell yourself not to buff the area of the piece near you, or suffer it being ripped from your hand and sent like a bullet into the wall or across the floor. 

 

Instead tell yourself, turn the part around.  Learn to buff parts, in halves. 

 

Buffing delicate stainless or aluminum trim pieces can quickly go from elation to scrap if the part gets away from you. 

 

Not to mention, you and your fingers! 

 

Buffing creates a lot of heat in aluminum and brass especially, so be prepared to take breaks.  I wear leather gloves so I don't burn my hands.  Clean the wheel frequently, and let the compound do the work.

 

I have always used white Rouge on stainless because the hard steel is the base metal and it's not soft like alloys are. 

 

Don't forget to please post pictures of your results! 

 

Edited September 27, 2017 by 27donb (see edit history)

[Mark Shaw]

I bought a box of new cadmium plated grease cups at a swap meet several years ago.  They had a yellowish color until recently when I buffed them with red rouge.  Now they appear nickel plated for use on my 1913 Nickel Buick.

[27donb]

4 minutes ago, Mark Shaw said:

I bought a box of new cadmium plated grease cups at a swap meet several years ago.  They had a yellowish color until recently when I buffed them with red rouge.  Now they appear nickel plated for use on my 1913 Nickel Buick.

 

Pics! 

 

I like shiny things... 

[DonMicheletti]

Whed buffing brass or stainless screws, I use a piece of small tubing the hold the screw. Drop the screw in the tube with the head sticking out and polish - that gets your hands away from the wheel and gives greater control.

[Mark Shaw]

1 hour ago, 27donb said:

 

Pics! 

 

I like shiny things... 

 

Photos with and without flash...

[KongaMan]

3 hours ago, DonMicheletti said:

Whed buffing brass or stainless screws, I use a piece of small tubing the hold the screw. Drop the screw in the tube with the head sticking out and polish - that gets your hands away from the wheel and gives greater control.

I find that that screws get the best results when chucked in a drill.    You get a nice even polish from the rotating piece against the wheel.  For rounded heads, you can get good preliminary results by putting the head against the rotating belt on a belt sander running a fine (e.g. 320) belt. I stick them in the area between the roller and the plate where there's some flex to the belt.  That's also a very good way to form the screw head to match what you need but can't find (e.g. turning a round head or pan head screw into one with a flatter head).

 

To polish nuts, spin them on to a screw or bolt.  Be sure to put them on the wheel so that the rotation tightens the nut rather than spins it off the end.

 

And yes, use the right wheel and compound for the job when polishing.  For stainless, I use a sisal wheel with black compound followed by a spiral sewn cotton wheel with white or green compound.  Play with them a bit what gives you the best results, as not all wheels and compounds are created equal.

 

Finally: if you hook up a buffing wheel to a grinder, try to do the work outside.  This process throws crap (compound, dust, shredded parts of the wheels) everywhere.  If you do it inside, everything will be covered in dust in short order.

 

[Mark Shaw]

Obviously, if your shop is where you park your cars (like many who have limited parking), make sure the cars are covered before buffing parts.  Unlike car polish, some coarse buffing compounds will scratch your car's finish the next time you wash them or just wipe them down.

[Fred Rawling]

Terry, 

 

If you can find a plating shop near by, ask them what they would use.   

 

Fred

[Brian_Heil]

Jewelers Rouge is about a 6

Edited December 20, 2017 by Brian_Heil (see edit history)

[Brian_Heil]

http://www.reade.com/products/jeweler-s-rouge-fe2o3

[Morgan Wright]

Red jeweler's rouge made from crushed hematite (Fe₂O₃) has a harness of 6. Not to be confused with rust, which is hydrous Fe₂O₃·H₂O also known as Fe(O)OH).

 

Rust that forms on the surface of iron in the presence of water is not crystallized but amorphous. Comparing hematite crystals with rust is like comparing crystals of other compounds with their amorphous state, such as comparing diamond with soot.

 

Other much harder jewelers rouge can be chromium oxide, silver (silicon dioxide), and hardest of all, blue (aluminum oxide).

 

The most commonly used jewelers rouge is Silvo brand, which is silica, with a hardness of 7. This is what Terry should use to polish stainless steel.

[Terry Wiegand]

I tried my hand at polishing some flat headed, slotted, stainless, machine screws.  I put them in my drill motor while up against the wheel.  For my very first attempt I didn't think that they turned out too bad.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[27donb]

13 minutes ago, Terry Wiegand said:

I tried my hand at polishing some flat headed, slotted, stainless, machine screws.  I put them in my drill motor while up against the wheel.  For my very first attempt I didn't think that they turned out too bad.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

 

NICE results! 

[KongaMan]

If you want to remove the deeper scratches, try something more abrasive and flatter.  Pushing anything too long into a wheel tends to remove detail.  For a flat screw head, you might try chucking it into a drill then spinning it against a piece of 320 grit sandpaper before taking it to the wheel.

 

As far as the compound goes, there's more to it than just the hardness of the abrasive itself.  In particular, size matters.  Big chunks of abrasive remove material faster and leave a rougher surface than finer particles of the same stuff.  That's why you can find several different compounds that use the same material.  That is, you could find aluminum oxide used in a range of compounds from initial strip to final polishing.

[ROD W]

What would be the best way to clean and polish these Ash Wheel caps so  I  don,t  damage the lettering.  The outer caps are Aluminium.

Edited December 21, 2017 by ROD W (see edit history)

[Morgan Wright]

The caps and lettering is made of cast iron which has a hardness of 5, and they are covered with rust. The rust has a hardness of around nothing. Brass is softer than iron, so you should use a brass brush and scrub the heck out of it. Take a wire wheel brass brush and attach it to your bench grinder or drill. Go to town. You can't scratch iron with brass, no matter how hard you try. That's actually the main reason they make brass brushes. To take rust off of iron.

[KongaMan]

Before you go the wire wheel, try small hand-held brushes (starting with stiff nylon, then brass).  It may be all you need.

 

If you get a brass wire wheel, make sure it's brass and not brass-plated steel.  You can usually tell the difference by the price.

Whatever you do, be prepared to spend some time "picking" at the inside of the letters.  It's unlikely that you'll get a thorough cleaning with either a brush or a wheel.

[ROD W]

I forgot to say,   the outer lock cap is  Aluminium

[KongaMan]

The issue you may face is that the aluminum is not only dirty, but pitted.  For the dirt, use stiff nylon and soapy water.  The pitting is going to be more of a problem if you're trying to get a highly polished look.  I don't know if there was any paint on these wheels originally, but you can use the pitting to your advantage here.  That is, you can polish the top and outer surfaces and paint the sunken areas.  That should both hide the areas that you can't clean up as well and accent the lettering.

 

Remember, aluminum is soft: a wire wheel (even brass) is likely going to remove detail that you want to preserve.  When you get the dirt off, you can polish the face by turning it over and rubbing it on a polish-soaked rag on a flat surface.  You could do the perimeter and sides on a buffing wheel, but make sure you're using the right (gentle) wheel and compound, as you can remove metal in a hurry.  Be very careful if you wheel up the face, as it's very easy to round over (and lose) the detail.

[Morgan Wright]

Just saw the edit, you say they are aluminum. Ignore my post.