Fine scratches on small brass pieces

I have 8 small pieces of solid brass from an army parade belt that have many fine scratches on them, I was advised by some friends in the army that they use 800-1200 grade sandpaper then cardboard then paper to remove scratches and return to mirror finish. I have tried this but seem to still have fine scratches with a very high mirror like finish. I have used Brasso [linked by editor to product info at Amazon] and Autosol [linked by editor to product info at Amazon] but to no avail, does anybody know how to remove fine scratches from brass?

Unfortunately, Steve, once you are to the "very high mirror finish" stage, the polish you use for that has almost no cutting power to remove those scratches. It's like trying to dig a foundation for a house with a toothpick.

You need to go back to an abrasive that is about half as rough as those scratches. Rub in the perpendicular direction to the scratches until the original scratches are gone and the surface is covered with new finer scratches running in the direction you are polishing. Then you go to a finer grade, and polish at right angles to the new scratches. I don't know how deep the scratches are, and how many steps you'll need to go through, but the principal throughout is to polish perpendicularly to the previous step, not stopping until all scratches from the previous step are gone. Think about it for a few minutes and you'll understand clearly. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

Hi,there.

Found this site after trying for some time to get a true "mirror" finish on brass. following the posted response re: using finer and finer grit paper then moving to a buffer with the finest compound still left me with swirl marks.

The same result followed using 10,000 grit polishing compound on a soft flannel wheel.

Any other suggestions would be welcome.

thanks