Thread: Brasso Polish Grit

The MSDS says silicon dioxide for Australia, and limestone for the US as the abrasive. Both are somewhat broad terms. Neither mention particulate sizes, I guess because it's dispersed in fluid and not considered an inhalation risk. Tormek honing compound is on average about 3 micron, which is the low end of Portland cement dust particle size, so I'd think it should be similar. I don't know what that means to you in grit size, but I think a 4000 grit Japanese water stone is about 3 micron.

I am not sure the grit size but its is quite small as it produces a nice shine. I suspect that silvo will be smaller again. I have used both on a leather strop when there was nothing else around.
Regards
John

Orraloon: And how well did it work to finish an edge? Even guess-work is welcome.

Brasso isn't recommended for silver or gold as the abrasive is reported to be coarser than that found in Silvo.
That's about all that I've found out.

I've found one of those balancing pan weigh scales in brass, old and tarnished, thought that I'd spiff it up as an ornament.
There's enough Brasso in a bottle to do a railway diesel locomotive so I'm casting about for other fine polishing projects.
Does the grit size match anything that I already have and use? Anything other than my locomotive?
My GMC Suburban is just about as big a pig.

I use the standard CrOx (0.5 micron) mix with AlOx (0.25 micron) as my usual honing compound for all of my wood carving tools, adzes included.
I have straight AlOx (white) but honing on that alone seems to take forever.

In the Lee Valley online catalog, there is a list of "grit numbers" and the approximate grit particle sizes for a range of 3M wet&dry automotive fine finishing sand papers.
I begin commonly with 800 (12 micron) then 1,000 grit (9 micron) then 1,500 grit (3 micron). At that point, I stop and hone.
The array of scanning electron microscope images of sharpened edges in Leonard Lee's book indicate that I need go no further.
So, I guessed that Brasso might be an equivalent to Autosol as a honing compound, which I can't find here.

I've got a few 4k water stones, maybe Brasso is about the same?

Sure, it looks shiny and polished. Look at the surface with a 10X lens. Much to my disappointment.

The honing step seems important to make the edges "carving sharp" for very soft woods such as Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) and Yellow cedar (Chamycyparis nootkatensis).

Sandpaper Man's site has a chart comparing grits and microns and a few different abrasives.
https://www.thesandpaperman.com.au/a...ion-chart.html

Where in the world doesn’t have a supplier of Autosol? I’m struggling to comprehend that, here I can walk into any of the major auto parts retailers and pick a 75g tube off the shelf. Even Bunnings hardware has it, which is where I buy from because they’re cheaper. Many parts places keep the 350g and 1kg tubs in stock as well. Can even get up to 20kg tubs delivered to your door!

I'm certain that there must be half a dozen major auto parts dealers in my village.
Half the people would move out if they could afford the gas. The other half are workaway.
90 miles east or 140 miles west, basically nobody and nothing but rock, water and forest.

I intend to buy Brasso because I want to brighten up a lot of brass items.
I'm curious to learn the particle size. If it's more than 1 micron, I might as well use
the CrOx/AlOx or straight AlOx which I already have.

If you just want to make brass shiny, use tomato ketchup.

Brasso's cheaper and tastes better

I charge my leather strop with Brasso for final honing, although I won't pretend to be an expert in sharpening it works for me ok.

One of the things that throws me off with grits is that there are at least 4 different scales - and they are all different..... Yet if you aren't paying attention - you end up with the wrong one.

Like for example 1000 grit and p1000 are completely different size abrasives.... If memory serves me right - P1000 is about double the micron size of 1000 grit.... And if you want something similar to real 1000 grit - you need p2500 or so... P1000 is available all over the place - but good luck finding stuff with the old ANSI grit ratings anymore....

Since Brasso is a polish and not designed to grind off geometry - I would expect the abrasive to be under 1 micron...

Using brasso to hone works if you have no green compound around. I have used it on a flat strop and the leather wheel of the wet grinder. Good enough to shave anyway. The draw back is it dries off the strop quite quick and you are left with a powdery mess. To sum up it works if it's all you have.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Brasso isn't recommended for silver or gold as the abrasive is reported to be coarser than that found in Silvo.
That's about all that I've found out.

I have a suspicion that Silvo works, at least partially, on a reduction reaction; whenever I've used it on silver it quite literally just wipes the oxide off with no effort at all. If it were purely abrasive I would expect at least a little bit of elbow grease would be required.