Bright Polish Finish

Bright Polish Finish is a high luster polish process for certain metals which involves gradually polishing an item with different grits of sandpaper and high speed buffing wheels and compounds to achieve a mirror like finish.

Polishing is often used to enhance the looks of an item, prevent contamination of instruments, remove oxidation, create a reflective surface, or prevent corrosion.

The condition of the object to be polished determines what type of abrasive will be applied. The first polishing stage, after it has been chemically stripped, sand blasted or if the material is unfinished, starts with a rough abrasive (perhaps 60 or 80 grit) and each subsequent stage uses a finer abrasive, such as 120, 180, 220/240, 320, 400 and higher grit abrasives, until the desired finish is achieved. The rough (i.e. large grit) passes remove imperfections within the metal surface like pits, nicks, lines and scratches. The finer abrasives leave progressively finer lines that are not visible to the naked eye.

When buffing there are two types of buffing motions: the cut motion and the color motion. The cut motion is designed to give a uniform, smooth, semi-bright surface finish. The color motion gives a clean, bright, shiny surface finish.

Here are some before and after samples of different metal objects done in bright polish finish: