I sandblasted some of my rigging parts for inspection and to remove all of the surface corrosion. Now it was time to polish them back to a state of better than new. This will allow easier inspection and is should look awesome.

Parts in serious need of polishing.

This is a detailed shot of a Mast Tang off my Hunter 54.

Detail Shot. (Before)

I used a small drill press, a Bench Grinder with two pads. Pad 1 is a spiral sewn 6 buffing pad, I used an emery compound to buff to a bright luster. Pad 2 is a loose 6 buffing pad that I used jewelers rouge to final buff to a mirror finish.
A 5 drill operated sanding backing pad.
100,150,320 grit 5 sticky back sanding pads.
Some 600 grit sandpaper, double sided carpet tape and a 3 twist-lock backing pad.

Some of the tools that were used.

See photo captions. The main goal is to reduce the size of all of the sanding scratches to the point where the first buffing wheel will be able to remove them. I found that this point was around 600 grit.

After initial sanding.

Total time about < 1 hr.

Final Result, Mirror finish.