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So you just got your bent and you're not sure what to do? This tutorial is here to help you along. You'll find advice for polishing your bent, as well as some pictures to help guide you along the process.
Start early! This is the best advice. The bent will take time to polish correctly. The general idea is that you follow a pattern of using finer and finer tools to polsih your bent. Begin with a file to start smoothing the brass, then move to sandpaper. With the sandpaper, start with 60 grit moving on to grits as high as 2000 (automotive sandpaper, used to prep for painting). After the sandpaper, use steel wool, then finish the process by polishing the bent using brasso or other brass polishing liquids. As you will also see below, maintaining the shape of the bent is important. This includes thickness as well. You should try to maintain as thick of a bent as possible, while removing all but extremely deep pits that would force you to polish the bent until it was significantly thinner. If you have any questions, feel free to ask an officer.
Note: Do not use any motorized tools such as an electric sander, grinder, or polishing wheel. This includes Dremel tools. If we believe that you used a motorized tool, we reserve the right to not initiate you.
This is the picture of the "bad" bent. This bent several problems - #1 problem is the deep scratches. The shape of the bent has been changed so that the round parts at the top and the bottom of the bent are now angled. This bent needed a lot more work and would not pass inspection. Click on the bent to see a much larger picture.
This is the picture of a slightly better bent. There are fewer scratches, but there are several other problems. This bent also suffers from poor shape. The bottom right corner is extremely rounded. It is clear that a round file was used in the corners, as opposed to an angled file. This is really evident when you look at the shadows. The edges of the bent also do not have sharp, well-defined lines. This bent would also not pass inspection. This bent is also tarnished and would need to be polished before being turned in. Click on the bent to see a much larger picture.
This is a picture of a good bent. The bent has no real visible scratches and has good shape. Ideally, the corners would be sharper and better defined, but this bent would pass. It is also polished and has an almost gold look to it. Click on the bent to see a much larger picture.
