Safety first
In all honesty the most important thing to consider when embarking on a restoration journey, is that it isn't your last. Using these high powered machines to clean a sharp blade is faster, but there are important considerations to be made before even switching on.
If you are going to remove steel from your razor then it has to go somewhere right? How about in your eyes, or your lungs? Yeah, that doesn't sound great does it? When using this method there will be tiny particles of steel flying around, they may not be big enough to harm you, but they might, and breathing in the dust isn't going to help you run any marathons any day soon.
You need to consider wearing breathing apparatus, and eye protection when you are using these wheels. Another thing to be aware of is that the steel can get very hot, so ignoring the protection of the steel here (for just a minute) you need to know about this. If the steel does get hot and you get a burn you need to know what to do. I am not going into this right now (that's for you to look up) but you NEED to know how to protect yourself.
The wheel moves at over 2000 RPM, if the blade leaves your hands the wheel can fling it right back at you, so protect yourself.
If you are going to remove steel from your razor then it has to go somewhere right? How about in your eyes, or your lungs? Yeah, that doesn't sound great does it? When using this method there will be tiny particles of steel flying around, they may not be big enough to harm you, but they might, and breathing in the dust isn't going to help you run any marathons any day soon.
You need to consider wearing breathing apparatus, and eye protection when you are using these wheels. Another thing to be aware of is that the steel can get very hot, so ignoring the protection of the steel here (for just a minute) you need to know about this. If the steel does get hot and you get a burn you need to know what to do. I am not going into this right now (that's for you to look up) but you NEED to know how to protect yourself.
The wheel moves at over 2000 RPM, if the blade leaves your hands the wheel can fling it right back at you, so protect yourself.
First Stage
The first stage to successful buffing is to choose the correct buffing wheels, and compounds.
For the fast removal of steel, you need to have a harder (perhaps sisal) buffing wheel, this is for the initial removal of rust and superficial pitting. Each wheel after this in your progression will be softer, and softer.
The first buffing compound that I use is a Greaseless satin buffing compound. In order to apply this to your wheel you are going to have to boil some water in a pan (that you don't want anymore), and let the greaseless compound soften in it. You don't want to touch the water because it will burn you. When the compound stick has softened you can apply it to your hard wheel. If you have a loading speed, you can use that, otherwise you can hand turn the wheel and apply it evenly. You will need to turn the wheel on, with your safety equipment on, to fling off any poorly applied compound. You will need to let the wheel dry before you use it.
When you come to buff your razor, you need to have an ice bath nearby. This is something you can dunk your razor into to cool it, it is a lot of ice covered in water. While buffing your razor ensure the razor's edge doesn't ever go against the direction of the buffing wheel, or it will get broken, and you may get injured.
For the fast removal of steel, you need to have a harder (perhaps sisal) buffing wheel, this is for the initial removal of rust and superficial pitting. Each wheel after this in your progression will be softer, and softer.
The first buffing compound that I use is a Greaseless satin buffing compound. In order to apply this to your wheel you are going to have to boil some water in a pan (that you don't want anymore), and let the greaseless compound soften in it. You don't want to touch the water because it will burn you. When the compound stick has softened you can apply it to your hard wheel. If you have a loading speed, you can use that, otherwise you can hand turn the wheel and apply it evenly. You will need to turn the wheel on, with your safety equipment on, to fling off any poorly applied compound. You will need to let the wheel dry before you use it.
When you come to buff your razor, you need to have an ice bath nearby. This is something you can dunk your razor into to cool it, it is a lot of ice covered in water. While buffing your razor ensure the razor's edge doesn't ever go against the direction of the buffing wheel, or it will get broken, and you may get injured.
The buffing wheel will leave scratches on your razor, and this is why you need to do a progression, to make those scratches finer and finer.