To polish a turd into a fret.

[thearabianmage]

Right, so I'm getting ready to do a crown on my little project, a Jackson/Charvel from 1992 (Japanese) but before I start shaving more shyt off, I was wondering exactly what grain of sandpaper I will need to get the frets shiny and mirror-like. I have some 400g, 800g, and 1000g wet-dry paper and some awesome metal polish, but I wonder if the 1000g wet-dry is enough to polish the frets. I saw someone say somewhere that they use 2000g to give their frets a little polish every now and again. And how do you use wet-dry paper? Simply wet it and rub the metal?

[Spudman***]

Fine steel wool is what you want.

If you are doing a maple fingerboard then tape off all the spaces with a non residue tape like painters masking tape. If you have a rosewood board just use the steel wool. No other prep is required.

Some people like to wrap their fine steel wool around a small block of wood for polishing their frets. Others use their hand and steel wool.

I think a couple of others have gotten more elaborate with sandpapers etc. but I have found it unnecessary to do so.

[thearabianmage]

Fine steel wool is what you want.

If you are doing a maple fingerboard then tape off all the spaces with a non residue tape like painters masking tape. If you have a rosewood board just use the steel wool. No other prep is required.

Some people like to wrap their fine steel wool around a small block of wood for polishing their frets. Others use their hand and steel wool.

I think a couple of others have gotten more elaborate with sandpapers etc. but I have found it unnecessary to do so.

Fine steel wool? Excellent! But are you sure that it's not too rough? Not that I'm turning down your advice, heavens no, but I was under the impression that fineness was a key factor.

[M29]

It would depend on what shape your frets are before polishing. If they have been leveled and are somewhat rough from the leveling you would probably have to work your way through a few grits to get to a super fine polish. The idea of sanding is to keep going up in grits to eliminate the scratches from the previous grit. You get to a point, depending on what you are sanding, where the finer grits don't do much anymore.
You may just need to shine them up like Spud said.

IMHO of course

M29

[thearabianmage]

Hey y'all, I appreciate everyone's advice, but now I'm getting a bit confused. I am a noobie to DIY guitar repairs, so let me explain a little bit more:

I've levelled the frets, and they have a bit of roughness from that but I will be crowning them soon, so I assume that roughness will be replaced with another roughness. They are jumbo frets, probably stainless steel (because it isn't or wasn't some really expensive guitar, just a budget-model made in Japan)

So after I crown them, if I give them a little rub with an 800p wet-dry and then a rub with a 1000p wet-dry, then polish them up with this awesome polish I got, should that theoretically do the job? Or alternatively, if I crown them, then get fine steel wool on them, then the polish. . . does that sound right?

I apologize for being such a noob.

[KrisH]

Hey y'all, I appreciate everyone's advice, but now I'm getting a bit confused. I am a noobie to DIY guitar repairs, so let me explain a little bit more:

I've levelled the frets, and they have a bit of roughness from that but I will be crowning them soon, so I assume that roughness will be replaced with another roughness. They are jumbo frets, probably stainless steel (because it isn't or wasn't some really expensive guitar, just a budget-model made in Japan)

So after I crown them, if I give them a little rub with an 800p wet-dry and then a rub with a 1000p wet-dry, then polish them up with this awesome polish I got, should that theoretically do the job? Or alternatively, if I crown them, then get fine steel wool on them, then the polish. . . does that sound right?

I apologize for being such a noob.

000 or 0000 steel wool, will make them shine. That's all.