Rouge?

I just bought some buffing wheels to get my bike cleaned up and they came with multiple color rouge? sticks...what are they and how do you use them?
I figure the answer is simple but I have never seen or used them before.

 

First tell me what color they are. Or you can go to http://www.caswellplating.com/
and read one of their polishing guides. But basically rouge is used to shine metal. You start with a rough rouge for moderate scratches and then go to medium and end with the red rouge for a high shine.

 

I have black, white, red and brown. So would I just use brown? Or red and then brown?

 

And how do I use it anyway? Apply it on the surface and then buff it?

 

kinda hard to tell by the colors....

e.g. black rouge can be either very fine buffing compound or very rough, like scrape-the-warts-off-your-grandma rough.
i have the same kit i think, in mine, it goes black, brown, red, white, roughest to finest respectively.

to use it, just spin up your buffing wheel, and basically let the wheel "eat" some of the rouge off the stick, till the wheel's working surface gets uniform in color. then get to buffing! I suggest you experiment with different rouges on something non-valuable.

when changing from one rouge to another, clean your buffing wheel by "buffing" the edge of a metal putty knife or something similar.

speed is your friend, pressure - not so much, unless you're removing rust :-D

 

Thanks everyone!

If you got your kit from Sears then it's the same one that I got.

Figured that since my exhaust came in today that I would clean it up before putting it on. If that goes smooth then I'll be working my way through the rest of the bike too!

 

The black would be the first compound to use to smooth out scratches. It is called emory. Second would the the brown which is called Tripoli. Last would be either the white or red. Both are high shines. The red is best on gold plated parts and the white for silver.

 

I'm guessing that cleaning them with some CLR before I start won't hurt anything as long as I rinse them well?

 

Nope. The rouge works better on a clean surface.