"Dan_Musicant" wrote in message
...
I have a couple of stainless steel pots that have had long usage and
don't look so hot.

One is an 18/10 16 oz Italian "espresso" coffee maker (that you put on a
stove burner) that's been used something like 20,000 times! I just spent
almost an hour buffing it with a wheel with polishing compound. It
proved to me that it IS possible to bring back that mirror like lustre
but it's just too much work to warrant the effort. I figure there must
be ways to speed up the process. I have 4 different grades of polishing
compound and I could theoretically start coarse and go finer with 4
different wheels. However, I'd have to go out and get at least 3 more
wheels. My grinder is homemade (from a dryer motor), and so is slower
than a regular store-bought grinder (about 1/2 the speed).

The tarnish on the coffee maker is kind of copper colored, some sort of
baked-on coating, maybe oxidation. Once in a while I wash off a coating
with metal cleaner or Bon Ami, but this harder/tougher copper colored
coating remains, which only seems removable (so far) by hard-nosed
buffing with polishing compound.

I also have a stainless steel boiler (18/8), which is one of those
coffee servers you see (or saw?) in coffee shops. Makes a nice boiler
(that's what I use it for), but is now so tarnished that on the bottom
in places it's is downright black. I'd like to shine it up too, at least
occasionally, if it can be done without too much effort.

Thanks for any tips.

It sounds like you're using traditional cutting and buffing compounds. For
stainless, or for any steel, for that matter, I use Dico stainless steel
polish and it's probably three times faster than any general purpose
compounds I've ever used. It leaves a great finish, too.

--
Ed Huntress