Product Review: Fabulustre Polishing Compound

On March 18, 2013

Fabulustre, used in conjunction with a buffing wheel, gently buffs light scratches and polishes metals to a high shine. Advertisements recommend a muslin wheel and promises minimal clean-up and dust, with excellent results expected on most metal surfaces and some plastics. Though available in large and small sizes, my supply arrived in a 5″ cardboard tube (depicted), with a disposable cardboard lid which, once removed, I found impossible to re-insert. The package, however, requires no special storage requisites.

Upon arrival, the compound was surprisingly solid, a density which seemed unintentional at first, and I almost mistakenly returned the product. Never fear fellow noobs, it’s perfectly normal for your polishing compound to be hard enough to bludgeon someone to death! Or, like me, drop it and break a toe. So…. don’t drop it. And, you know, don’t bludgeon anyone.

I used a wool wheel with my Dremel, turned it on, pressed it against the surface of my compound, then to my piece, and voila! It turned a really ugly black (note the wheel depicted). BUT, it’s supposed to. The wheel, not the metal. If the metal turns black, increase your Dremel speed and you’ll see that beautiful shiny surface peek through in seconds. Take the before (top) and after (bottom) pictures provided, and the luster is immediately distinguishable. Polish works equally well on bronze, brass, copper and fine silver, though I’ve yet to test this on a silver-filled wire. A slight sheen of dust to wipe off the surface….of the metal, my glasses, the counter, the inside of my mouth (I think I sneezed dust for 45 minutes)…. and you have a beautiful piece of polished jewelry. To be fair, the dust was more likely due to the wool wheel than to the compound, so I recommend a cotton wheel for use with this product.

For the low price of $6.95, this product will last FOREVER. I can’t imagine a day in which I wont still have this same tube of Fabulustre polishing compound tucked within my supplies. A finish four months old still shines, which speaks towards the longevity of the process and the quality of the product as a whole. Though, if I’m honest, and despite its ease of use, I much prefer a nice polishing cloth and to call it a day. I find the luster of this compound artificial when used on heavily woven areas, with a look that was completely unnatural, like foil, though larger coils and bare wires were luminous. If weaving excessively, I recommend a tumbler for your polishing needs instead. Better yet, just let the metal do its thing and appreciate the beauty of its own natural processes. I’m a purist at heart.