At 2:55 pm +0200 21/6/07, Danilo Perusina wrote: >Would you be so kind as to explain to a foreigner the exact meaning >of burnish, as applied to graphite and the wooden parts we are >talking about? Online dictionaries translate it as polish. Polishing is generally done with something like a rag and will make a surface shiny without necessarily leaving it flat. Burnishing is done with a very smooth hard object using some pressure. For example when I recondition the surface of a jack that has lost its blacklead and become rough, I first make it smooth and clean with P1200 paper. Next I apply the blacklead with a piece of check-felt. When the surface is dry and hard I then hold the jack tight between thumb and forefinger and rub across it with a highly polished steel needle, say 2mm in diameter, to leave a highly polished surface. A 4B - 6B pencil is also quite useful for maintenance work. If a blackleaded surface is not burnished it will be far less effective and prone to wear. JD
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