On reading a short article by Walter Grabner I got the impression he thought polishing was important beyond looking good. He was referring to the side and tip rails I believe. 
 There seems to be a difference of opinion on what constitutes polishing. Are we actually taking material off or bringing something up or adding something?
 After roughing up the beak of a clarinet mouthpiece with a file I tried various methods to get a shine back just as an experiment that I could then apply to the rails.     The back side of abrasive paper did bring back a bit of gloss after some vigourous rubbing.  I tried adding some cork grease in the process but I'm not sure it did anything. 
  Is there a scientific explanation of polishing?   Many people equate a polishing motion with polishing.  Obviously if you polish with a rasp you probably aren't polishing.   I'm not trying to split hairs or be semantical here.   It seems when polishing a car you actually are adding something to the surface.  
     Are there any supporters of polishing rails for other than cosmetic reasons?  I can't see many customers looking to see how polished any rail would be.  Perhaps the baffle area might be more of a concern to them.       

These are slightly different processes. When polishing a car you are
applying wax and then buffing the wax to a shine. If it is a cutting polish
some of the oxidised paint surface is removed by the buffing, but if it is a
gloss polish then nothing is removed except some of the applied wax. When
you burnish metal you are not applying anything, you are smoothing the metal
down to a uniformly smooth finish using finer and finer abrasives, removing
some metal in the process. This includes the process of polishing metal with
a cleaner such as Brasso, which is a combination of fine abrasive, oxalic
acid and ammonia in an oil base. This formulation varies slightly by country
to comply with local laws. The ammonia and oxalic acid serve to chemically
remove surface tarnish, the abrasive to burnish the surface.

Tony F.

 

From: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of John
Sent: Monday, 12 December 2011 6:00 AM
To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MouthpieceWork] polishing

 

  

On reading a short article by Walter Grabner I got the impression he thought
polishing was important beyond looking good. He was referring to the side
and tip rails I believe. 
There seems to be a difference of opinion on what constitutes polishing. Are
we actually taking material off or bringing something up or adding
something?
After roughing up the beak of a clarinet mouthpiece with a file I tried
various methods to get a shine back just as an experiment that I could then
apply to the rails. The back side of abrasive paper did bring back a bit of
gloss after some vigourous rubbing. I tried adding some cork grease in the
process but I'm not sure it did anything. 
Is there a scientific explanation of polishing? Many people equate a
polishing motion with polishing. Obviously if you polish with a rasp you
probably aren't polishing. I'm not trying to split hairs or be semantical
here. It seems when polishing a car you actually are adding something to the
surface. 
Are there any supporters of polishing rails for other than cosmetic reasons?
I can't see many customers looking to see how polished any rail would be.
Perhaps the baffle area might be more of a concern to them.