Any idea what this is?

[Rob Price]

A friend gave me a box of spindle blanks. Someone was cleaning out their shop and gave him the box. He only turns bowls so he gave me the box. Some nice sized blanks, but several of these bars. I'm guessing it's some kind of wax finish but I can't turn up anything on google.

Thoughts?

[Dan Hintz]

Polishing compound...

[Dale Miner]

Looks like a rouge of some sort, probably for metal polishing with felt wheels.

[James Combs]

Perhaps something like the Tripoli (http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2002036/3731/beall-tripoli-bar-6-x-2-x-1.aspx) in the Beal triple buff system.

[Rob Price]

So this would go over a film finish? I may try a test run on some scraps just to see how it does.

[John Keeton]

Rob, it doesn't "go over" anything. It isn't a finish. It probably is simply a wax base with a fine abrasive to polish an existing finish, or metal, etc. They are used to "load" a buffing wheel.

Because you do not know the grit level, it would be wise to build a finish on a scrap and buff it. The other problem is - once you introduce this to a buffing wheel, it is THERE! So, if it happens to be too coarse for buffing fine finishes on woodwork, you may have ruined a buffing wheel.

[James Combs]

A Bing search for "goodson polishing compound" turned up this site (http://www.goodson.com/Valve-Lapping-Compound/) and a "valve lapping compound". Good chance they are polishing compounds for metal.

[Dan Hintz]

A Bing search for "goodson polishing compound" turned up this site (http://www.goodson.com/Valve-Lapping-Compound/) and a "valve lapping compound". Good chance they are polishing compounds for metal.

That's be great if they said "Goodson"... but they say "Goodison" ;)

Still, it's a metal polishing compound... doesn't look like Bruko is around anymore, and if it is, it's hiding pretty well.

[Rob Price]

Interesting. In the trash they go!

[robert baccus]

That's probably very good stuff??

[Brian Ashton]

Interesting. In the trash they go!

I'd be putting them on ebay and or maybe here.

[Rob Price]

Sure. If someone here wants to cover shipping I'll happily pass them along.

[Dave Cullen]

I use stuff like that on my buffing wheels. Great for polishing the back sides of plane irons, chisels etc. and for aluminum motorcycle parts.

[robert baccus]

Actually all the wax type compounds we use in our hobby were developed for metal polishing--red, white-blue ect.I suspect this is some grit of Tripoli.

[Jeff Nicol]

Most everything that I have seen while doing metal polishing and what we use for wood has been color coded to correspond to the grit in he compound. These bars look like the large bars or tubes we used when polishing stainless, some would be softer in the tubes for ease of loading the wheels, but would dry out over time if not covered with plastic, but still would work if enough time and pressure were used to load the buffing wheel.

So my guess is a tripoli and it would be easy to see how big the grit is by just rubbing it against something with a shiney finish or a metal can to see what the sratches look like. It would be good for oak and other dark woods and porous woods.


Worth something, it was free!

Jeff