Stainless polishing trouble

I did a search and couldn't find anything on exactly what to do when polishing stainless so I'll throw this out there and hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
The pic shows the piece on the left that I sanded with 400, 600, 1000 then polished on the wheel. The one on the right I just polished on the buffer, no sanding. I can't figure out what the "haze " is that is on the sanded piece, or figure out how to remove it, if it can. I looks like a grain in the steel if that sounds right.

Anyway I'm pretty stumpped as to what to do with this, out side of finding someone that repairs trim and paying a ton of cash to fix it. Any help is greatly appricated. Thanks

 

Stainless is very hard and will readily scratch with the amount of sanding that you did. I am not sure why you sanded the part but you will have to get those scratches out before you will be able to polish it to the level of shine that you want. "Polisher" on this board has a free guide available for the asking that will help you...he also carries a line of polishing products. Send him a PM if he doesn't reply to this post. Good Luck!

 

Well, I'm no expert, but from my experience I can tell you this: For every minute you spend with the 400 paper, you'll need 10 minutes with the 600 and 20 minutes with the 1000. The finer the grit, the less material it takes off, right? (Depth-of-scratches-wise, I mean). Stands to reason, then, that the finer the grit, the more time needed to take out the scratches left by the previous (coarser) grit.
I don't sand anything anymore; that's what coarse compounds are for. But like I said, I'm not an expert at polishing. 2cents.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I'll try to get ahold Polisher and maybe keep working alittle on that piece I screwed up.

 

I got round 17 years experience in the Stainless Field...mainly as a fabricator....but i will polish my own stuff when a polisher is not around .....so heres my take on it .....I have never used sand paper on any stainless.....say starting with a raw piece....i would use a 60 or a 80 grit mop.....now im unsure if the "grit" is the same ratings as sandpaper.....then drop down to a 120 grit...then a 180 grit....all the time using heaps of "fat" or compound on the article ....and allways going slightly against the grain of the last mop ....so you cut the grain lines out ...if you go with the grain ....you will only make it go deeper in to the metal.....then i would go to a "nylon" mop....again heaps of compound......then once you start to see the grain lines coming out ....go to a rope mop ....then to a cotton mop.....this should bring it up to a mirror finish.....you can keep going on to a "swanny " mop ....or a "dolly" mop ....to bring up the lustre even more......to clean of the compound i use powdered lime .....it brings up the shine even more and gets off the grease with out having to use another compound that may have something in it that may mark the metal..........polishing is an art form ....and a good polisher is worth there weight in gold .......it just takes time a patience to get it right .....but it is a handy skill to have

 

with my experience, a sisal wheel (red stringy) with emery compound (black) will remove 320 scratches in stainless, but after the sisal buff, you should change the buffing wheel to a Fluffy white buffing wheel, and use white compound, and it should clear up and be crystal clear and mirrorlike.... I use acetone to clean up the stainless before and after polishing..... LUKESTER

 

OK,
Hazing is inconsistant finishing.
One of your cuts, probably in finer states isn't thorough enough.
When you sand anything the scratches of each grit should cross, hard on trim because it's so thin so we work diagonally.
If you keep sanding straight down the trim you will have to remove much more material to remove the previous grades scratch.
We will take any stainless through to 1000 grit with greaseless abrasives, wet paper and belts, depending on which tool is easiest for the area.
We then wet sand with a little soap to soften the cut through to 2000 grit for a show finish, then buff with a coarse greased abrasive, a fine greased abrasive, and then finish off with a dry chrome oxide.
You can reduce the steps, but you will reduce the quality of finish.
Many people will buff with greased compounds from 600 grit and only give it a couple of cuts, but the image will not be as sharp.

 

Gentlemen,

This thread is an education. Thank You. I've actually copied this and saved it for future reference. Stu

 

polisher: Thanks alot for explaining what I was doing wrong. All of the sanding that I have done has been wet but I now see that the big mistake was sanding down the length of the piece and not diagonally across it.
Also going to try going to 2000 before buffing, good thing I started messing around with a spare piece before working on the ones I can't easily replace.

Thanks again eveybody for all the info. Ben