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Man, I would much rather open a cool one and type all day on the "Being a hobbyist, and being happy" thread.
Instead, I'm trying to put to bed a long standing down to earth conundrum in my Shop.

Rubbing compounds are expensive. The labels manufactures use I find as useless as the endless anecdotal descriptions about their effectiveness.
I have, and have used, a number of them but not yet found what I am looking for.
I have decided to do some simple testing myself. Based on what I need the product to do.
I welcome any interest or input on where I drop my next dollop of potentially wasted money.


The best test surface I have. A jet black Epiphone, brick hard poly finish
Matt spots are 3M Imperial 2500 wet sanded w/ soapy water

Jescar/Menzerna 2500, Jescar/Menzerna scratch and swirl remover, Novus #2

30 seconds clockwise and 30 seconds counterclockwise with each product

For inaccessible places or times when buffing would highlight touchups I'm looking for something to bridge the gap between the 2500 Imperial scratches and these products.

Any suggestions?
One of the myriad "finesse it" compounds? Novus #3?

Work up through the micromesh grades first before using these products.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

If you want to finish on 2500 papers I think you'll have to start with a coarser rubbing compound (and then finish with a fine one). Have you tried starting on Farecla G4? It feels like rubbing grit into the surface, but produces quite a good shine. After that, one of the compounds you have should finish the job off.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

We wet sand lacquer and polyester/polyurethane through 1200, then medium and fine Menzerna compounds on the big buffer, then 3M 05990 Hand Glaze. For Enduro-Var, we dry sand either with 3M imperial papers or with Abralon/Abranet on an air sander (side/neck versus top/back), then buff and glaze. Seems to provide a swirl and haze free high gloss.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

I've never heard of Farecla G4. I'll look into it's availability in the states. Thanks Trevor.

Woodie, I use a buffer most of the time. I'm just looking for a relatively quick way to go from wet sanding to final gloss w/out the buffer. In some situations it works better. I have gotten it done for a long time but feel like it has required too much time and elbow grease.
I'm looking for a certain intermediate grit to speed/ease the process.