Dear Sirs,
Sorry for my english.  I find that near to the tip of the mouthpiece the surface is polished  and shiny. I tried to make this with different products, but I can´t get. Can anyone suggest me how to do?
My sincerely best regards,
SJ

If you are referring to the tip rail and/or the facing itself, all the polishing you need can be accomplished by taking the paper you are using to finish the facing (in my case 600 grit wet/dry paper) and reversing it (i.e. grit side down on whatever your flat level surface is) and making a few passes on that backside.  Make sure you do not have any loose grit anywhere before you do this.

This is how Frank Wells used to end the facing process as I sat there soaking up everything I could from him.  He said that the makers of well known French mouthpieces (a company also well known for their saxophones) tended to "screw up" (or some words to that effect) their work by buffing and thereby distorting the facings they had just worked hard to put on the piece.  He implied that the amount of wine they drank at lunch also had something to do with this problem.

The stupidest questions are the ones you don't ask.  There are no embarrassing questions, just embarrassing answers.
 
Tom Zappe/St. Louis 





________________________________
 From: "sergio@..." <sergio@jerezgomez.com>
To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2014 4:55 AM
Subject: [MouthpieceWork] I hope is not a stupid question
 


  
Dear Sirs,
Sorry for my english.  I find that near to the tip of the mouthpiece thesurface is polished  and shiny. I tried to make this with different products, but I can´t get. Can anyone suggest me how to do?
My sincerely best regards,
SJ

I have seen some mouthpieces with polished baffles near the tip rail.  I do not think this makes a big difference, but others are convinced that it does.  If I wanted to do this I would do my normal finishing with sand papers, then steel wool.  Then I would use a paste rubbing/polishing compound.  I would then finish with a small buffing wheel in my high speed rotary tool with a buffing rouge like red or yellow.

> On Mar 29, 2014, at 5:55 AM, <sergio@...> wrote:
> 
> Dear Sirs,
> Sorry for my english.  I find that near to the tip of the mouthpiece the surface is polished  and shiny. I tried to make this with different products, but I can´t get. Can anyone suggest me how to do?
> My sincerely best regards,
> SJ
> 
> 

It's not a stupid question. Yes, it does make a difference. For me, it makes the pieces play smoother and a little more glassy in terms of response. I enjoy the benefits of a polished baffle. As Mojo says, you gotta get down to 1000-2000 grit with the sandpaper, then steel wool. Then, you polish with a high-speed rotary tool. You can use a 1" muslin buffing wheel in your rotary tool for each separate compound. You must use a different mulin wheel for each compound or the duller compounds will get mixed with the shinier compounds. I can get all different grades of buffing compound, but the best ones I've found are from Menzerna. Fender Guitars uses these on their guitar bodies at the plant. I use the brown (coarse), beige (fine), and yellow (super fine) on 3 different 1" muslin buffing wheels with a 10,000 rpm motor and rotary hand piece. The 10,000 rpm motor is a little bit fast, you would do better with one of the Foredom LX 5,000 rpm models, but those are a bit more expensive. I have a chepaer Grobet 10,000 setup and it does the job, you just can't run the wheels too fast (compensate with foot speed controller) or you will burn the rubber with your muslin wheel. Wear a dust mask, and make sure to wipe off/clean the work between compound grades so you don't get the duller compounds mixed in with your shinier compounds.