Burnishing means rubbing a metal with another piece of metal that is smooth and hard. It is obviously non-abrasive. Done properly, it will smooth down small raised high spots.
Gleaming is essentially chemical and/or physical polishing. Some versions also involve burnishing, but the key to it is the polishing.
If you do either or both of the above, you will destroy all gained advantages if you later rub the track with an abrasive block like a Bright Boy.
Ed
It this were so, how would you explain the diminishment of the profile of steel locomotive and rolling stock tires, and of the rails that support them?
I would say that that was not an example of burnishing.
Burnishing is rubbing “(a material) with a tool for compacting or smoothing or for turning an edge” (Merriam-Webster).
Notice that there is no tool in your example. Nor a desire to compact or smooth.
Ed
I cannot pretend to resolve this particular issue, but a classic example of “burnishing” in the model railroad context is the advice from Kadee to burnish the coupler shaft (shank) of their couplers with the smooth handle of, say, a small metal file, to remove burrs and rough spots so that it becomes smooth and can swing from side to side more easily in the Kadee coupler pocket.
I have found that many modelers who report problems with coupler swing with their Kadees concede that they failed to follow the instruction to “burnish” the shank.
Dave Nelson
Mr. Nelson has presented a classic case of “burnishing”.
Ed
Burnishing - rubbing the railheads with the rounded side of a stainless steel auto body washer - is an integral part of the ‘Gleeming’ process. So is the use of metal polish.
The use of metal polish without the burnishing step is not ‘Gleeming.’
Any use of an abrasive will cause the microgrooving that burnishing is supposed to eliminate.
The Masonite pads of a John Allen track cleaner car, being softer than the metal rails, will not scratch the railheads. However, if they pick up something that can scratch, like sandpaper grit or steel filings, all bets are off. Tha’s why I vacuum all track in the vicinity of new construction before running any trains through the area.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with ‘Gleemed’ rails)
Dave, can you provide a link to that specific advice? I somewhat searched the Kadee web site, but couldn’t find it. I appreciate your help.
Rich
It’s in the instructions they post under Helpful Hints on the menu bar.
Here’s one
I imagine it’s in all their instruction sheets.
Paul
Thanks, Paul. I looked up Kadee #5 as an HO scale coupler and, indeed, they recommend burnishing, not only with Grease 'Em, but also with a metal tool.
Rich
This “Gleaming vs Burnishing” discussion seems to follow the same type of dialogue you find in discussions about “Capscrew vs Bolt” or “Motor vs Engine”.
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Lots of people quote dictionary or technical manual deifnitions, but the fact is that in common speach spoken by 99.89% of the people these terms will always be interchangeable.
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“Star Trek vs Star Wars” however is an entirely different thing.
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-Kevin
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Gleaming is not a competing method to burnishing, as you won´t achieve the effect you expect to get from gleaming without prior burnishing.
Guess how I found that out!
All I can say is gleaming really does the job!
Indeed it is! [Y]
I really like that R2D2 robot that follows the Doctor around on the Enterprise…
[8-|]
I never bothered with the polish, just burnished the rails and never had to clean the track again. Probably could hook some jumper wires to one of the pieces of my old layout that have been sitting in my basement for 3 years now and I could run something.
–Randy