Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Speaking of Buffing?
Barry Irby
Did not want to hijack the thread below, I am asking a different question.
A friend asked me to buff a collectable pocket knife he was selling. I used my Beall Buff wheel with white diamond. It worked beautifully. The knife is really nice and shinier than new. I may have buffed ALL of the collectability off it.
The problem is it turned the wheel black. Is it ruined for buffing turnings? Is there a cure other than a new wheel. How can I clean it?
Re: Speaking of Buffing?
John C Lucas
BTDT. Now i have a seprate wheel i use for buffing metal. Take the sharp corner of a board and push against it. I use a square piece wood so i have 8 sides. After that if it doesnt clean it all.off use some course sandpaper.
Don't use sandpaper, as the grit......
JamieDonaldson
....will come back to haunt you in later buffing! When needed, I use a stiff wire brush to "clean up" a dirty wheel.
Re: Speaking of Buffing?
Jim Barbour
I use a short piece of spent band saw blade. I really do need to get some handles on it, but with gloves it works fine.
Over a span of ten years or so I have ended up with four separate Beall systems. When I first got a set of course it eventually darkened. When it got so I saw the dark on holly, I bought a new set and marked it for "light wood", maple, holly, etc. The original one was marked for "dark woods", walnut, bubinga, etc. When "dark woods" set wore down I got a new one and marked the "dark woods" for "dyed woods", the "light woods" for "dark woods" and the new set for "light woods". As the "dyed woods" set finally wore down far enough to replace, it became the "metal" set and everything shifted down one.
If you followed that without taking notes, you are paying too much attention! 
Think of it as a column with light on the top and metal on the bottom. There are always four sets in the column, with new ones added to the top and the oldest one discarded as it comes out the bottom. I have now finally worn my first set down to about 4" and black as pitch so I recently added a new set to the top, throwing out the original, purchased when the system was still a novelty.
The process of shifting takes place about every 18-24 months.
Re: Speaking of Buffing?
Barry L Elder
It gets irritating after a while when wouldwherkers can't spell simple words like : course, as in a golf course, and coarse, as in sandpaper grits. Yah! You never could spell and you don't care, so don't brag to the world how dumb you done been. Get your lovely lady or your grandchild to cover for your lazy butt!!!!! 
Re: Speaking of Buffing?
John K Jordan
>>>The problem is it turned the wheel black. Is it ruined for buffing turnings? Is there a cure other than a new wheel. How can I clean it?
I learned long ago how black metal working and polishing gets things so I mounted a separate wheel on a grinder. I don't know how to get rid of the black without cutting it away.
I got a polishing wheel from a local woodcarving supply store, the one he uses for carving knives. It it rather stiff and looks like this although it is white instead of yellow:
https://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-D3193-Buffing-6-Inch-8-Inch/dp/B005W0V0XE
JKJ