Polishing

[pick kidd 101]

i polish my picks like this

400-800-1500 hand sand

#1 emery polish on felt wheel
#3 brown tripoli
#6 white rouge to finish and you have a perfect mirror shine, no scratches

[Abus]

I tend to go up to 600 or 1500 grit wet or dry and call it good on most picks, then let them wear in a little. As to keeping rust off, I occasionally have to repolish one, and I've played around with bluing them. Even el cheap cold bluing works pretty good.

[vitti]

If you go the cold bluing route pay special attention to how you clean them prior to bluing. As I discovered through trial and error, simple soap and water or even rubbing alcohol isn't sufficient. You can somewhat see how well the blue is going to take by holding the pick in a thin stream of water. Does it bead and follow a thin path to the end of the pick or spread evenly across the whole pick? You want it to spread evenly. Otherwise the finish will not be uniform.

It does hold up well but will not have a shinny luster unless oiled or waxed, something you probably don't want in a thin piece of metal you hold in your hand.

I do like the look though, I blued mine to the point they're almost black.

[Abus]

Although wildly extravagant, I have hot tanked a couple of lock tools in with other parts, which certainly gives a *really* nice bluing. But on the cold blue route:

I've always liked to heat parts up, not necessarilly really hot, but say, 250 degrees or so after degreasing with brake cleaner, then apply the bluing solution (Birchwood Casey or Brownells) with a piece of paper towel or scotchbrite pad held in hemostats while the part is still pretty warm. Scotchbrite works nice on parts that are resistant, since you can really scrub the stuff in.