Wow!  My computer's been 'sick' for 17 days and I'm just now catching up
on stuff.  FedEx mashed my computer on its way back from the 'hospital',
so it had to go in for major surgery!  My apologies to all those who
wrote and didn't get a timely reply.

Hauke, glad you got the rouge.  Sorry I forgot it in the first package.
I use a stationary polishing motor with a 6-inch cotton/felt buffing
wheel on it.  Press the rouge into the wheel gently and have it coat the
outside edge of the wheel.  The heat of the spinning wheel melts the
rouge and it gets distributed over the edge surface of the wheel.

If you hold the rouge bar against the wheel too long it will only clog
the wheel with the compound.  You'll know if you have too much on the
wheel, because you'll be chasing black streaks all the time!  Just 'kiss'
the wheel with the compound and you'll be okay.

You also need to clean out the wheel periodically.  Make yourself a
cleaning tool by taking a piece of 3/4" pine or other suitable wood.
Cut a strip of it about 2" wide by about 15" long.  Into the center of
the strip hammer a bunch of 6 penny nails so that the points stick out
of the board about 1/4".  Put about 5-6 rows about 2" long and across the
width of the board.

After about every 4th or 5th time you put compound on the wheel, clean it
out after you're finished using it.  This prevents build-up and chasing
those black streaks!

White is harder than yellow; it goes (from softest to hardest):

     green, red. yellow, white, black

Try not to handle the polished piece; use a rag to hold it.  Everyone has
acids in their chemical makeup, some more than others.  There's nothing
more frustrating than polishing a piece of brass, lacquering it and then
seeing a fingerprint appear a few days later *under* the lacquer!

Be sure to wipe off the surface of the polished piece before you
lacquer, and use a lacquer specially made for metal, not wood.
Lacquers made for wood will rub off easily and make it very hard to
work with the piece.

When polishing soft things, like the nickel plating on some cylinder and
disc boxes, I use a softer rouge, usually red, and don't press too hard
against the wheel.  It is very easy to remove the plating on some of the
boxes by trying to polish it *too* much!

Hopefully, my computer ills have been cured with its recent surgery and
I'll be 'on-line' permanently!  Enjoy!

Nancy Fratti
MusicBoxLady@Juno.com

 [ Trivia-Editor's note:
 [
 [ My 7 kg dictionary says that "penny" in "6-penny nail" is a corruption
 [ of "per hundred", and not a reference to the coin.  In the 15th
 [ century, the small nails actually cost 6 pence per 100 nails.  The
 [ modern 6-penny nail in America measures 65 mm x 3 mm diameter.
 [
 [ Robbie