I recently finished my 3rd board. This board was a 21st birthday present for a good friend’s brother. Due to the occasion, I decided to gloss the board even though it’s a big guy tri. I used Kokua’s recipe and was happy with the gloss coat itself but I had a few lumps/zits because my brush wasn’t perfectly clean.
However, the purpose of this thread is to highlight a key thing that isn’t overly obvious in the archives. That is, the importance of using a cutting compound in the glossing process.
Initially I bought a “fibreglass polish” and spent the next 2 hours with my sander/polisher and achieved very little. The finish was quite dull looked pretty ordinary.
After re-reading the archives, I noticed that a few people were recommending a cutting compound. During my initial reading about glossing, it sounded like an optional step but I found that it was absolutely essential. I used a no name automotive cutting compound. After applying the compound to a small section, I had a brilliant shine within 20 seconds with my power sander and a lambs wool pad.
So, to the other glossing novices, I found that a cutting compound was far more important for me in achieving a showroom shine that fibreglass polish.
Kind Regards,
Matt.
P.S In hindsight, I would guess that Shurlustre starts out as more of a cutting compound rather than a polish. The compound that I used starts out coarse and breaks down which is similar to what poeple have said about Shurlustre here on Swaylocks.
How dare you question the archives…blasphemer…heethen.
Just kidding.
Gloss, sand, polish.
Where you might be confused is that “polish” actually means buff with rubbing compound, then polish with a finer grit compound, then apply marine wax.
The rubbing compound is a super fine grit paste that “buffs” out all the irregularites and gives that mirror look. Surluster, Maguires, or waht I use, the 3M compounds…all work great.
I learned all that in the archives by the way. Just gots to keep digging till you find the gold.
What grit paper are you guys stopping at? A lot of people in the archives suggest stopping at 600, which just seems really course to me.
I go to 1000 and sometimes even 1200. Then I use a 3m heavy cutting compound and the 3m website maintains that the heavy compound can remove “1000 grade scratches”. After this I then use a medium cut, and finally a mirror glaze. Is this overkill?
I’m just got done glossing one so I’ll give it a try. It will be great being able to stop at 600. I’ll let you guys know how it comes out. Matts’ board looks really good!
Howzit Herb, I find the trick is to up the RPM’s of your sander when you are basically finished with what ever grit paper you are using since as the paper gets used up it becomes smoother and kinda polishes. It doesn’t take long to sand the grit off of 600 and by doing this I find I only need 2 applications of Shurlustre to attain a beautiful finish. Hope I explained this right,In other words use the paper til it has hardly any grit left to it then proceed to the next finer paper.Aloha,Kokua
By the way I always sand the bottoms to make sure they are flat and smooth, it’s the decks that I mostly don’t need to sand before polishing.