Finished polishing the 2nd h-stab skin, at least as polished as it is going to get for now. This one has a nicer finish than the first one. About 1/12 of the way through, I switched out the ancient worn-out wool bonnet for a brand new "synthetic wool" one that I found at the auto parts store. These are a waste of time. I got it to work by holding the draw string (this one had a draw string instead of an elastic band) so it would not rotate on the polisher. That way, I got the exact same part of the bonnet to rub on the metal the entire time. I needed this so it would load up some and actually bite. After about 1 1/2 hours of that, I found the other old worn-out wool bonnet in a drawer. I knew it was around somewhere. I put that on, and it loaded up to a nice bite pretty quickly. I was getting a good finish in one long pass over an area instead of applying the polish 3 or 4 times in a given area. When it's loaded up nice, part of the bonnet will still be "wet" and that part can be brought over the area multiple times to reload the area with polish without adding more from the can. So I'd put the polish on an area about 6" square, run that to black real quick, then run it back off really slowly, then run it back to black with a wet part of the wheel and clear it back off two or three times before adding some more polish to another area. Something about the wool puts a lot more heat into the surface - seems to be at least partially temperature dependent - an area polished up faster the hotter I could get the polisher to make it.
Area set up for polishing. Covered table with plastic and paper.
The polished skins.
Trying to show the reflection. They seem to show more shine than in the photo.
