All of this talk about the CD test got me curious, so I did it myself.
I must say I was a bit surprised by the results.
First it should be noted that I completely agree with Stevet's results: every one of the towels I tested (four of them) scratched the CD to a certain extent.
Although I tried to be as consistent as possible, the results varied to a degree. I tested the same four towels on four seperate CD's.
The towels tested were: 1) 100% Cotton Towel (Castle made by Dundee in U.S.) 2) Concourse Buffing Towel 3) Ultra Fine MF towel (Yellow from Pakshak) 4) Ultra MF (Blue from Pakshak)
I placed the CD on a hard surface, shiny side up (obviously). I then took my index finger inside each towel and applied a medium amount of pressure for the same number of back and forth motions (20). I did my best to apply the same amount of pressure each time.
I used a Sharpie pen on the label side of the CD to mark an arrow with the name of each towel tested. All four towels would be tested on its own area of the four CD's (I divided the CD in to four sections....basically an X) so I could keep track of which towel was used for each section. Since this was done on the label side, it allowed me to do a "blind" determination of which towels were performing the best.
I then looked at the CD's under flourescent lighting, and attempted to determine which one had the least to most amount of scratching. This is obviously subjective, and some of the tests were more difficult to determine a difference than others.
There was one towel that was very consistent in the appearance of the scratches that it left: The Concourse Buffing Towel. The CBT left noticeable scratches every time, but they were a very fine scratch, very close together, and very consistent. While some of the other towels would have lighter and deeper scratches, the CBT's scratches all looked very similar....none particular deeper or more noticeable.
In the blind testing, I was able to determine which section belonged to the CBT each time after the first test.
Anyway, here are the results of the four tests. Basically, the section that had the most noticeable scratching under the light was ranked last, least noticeable scratching was ranked first:
Test One:
1. Ultra Fine MF
2. 100% Cotton Towel (tie)
2. Ultra MF (tie)
4. CBT
Test #2:
1. 100% Cotton Towel
2. CBT
3. Ultra Fine MF
4. Ultra MF
Test #3:
1. 100% Cotton Towel
2. Ultra Fine MF
3. Ultra MF
4. CBT
Test #4:
1. Ultra Fine MF
2. 100% Cotton Towel
3. CBT
4. Ultra MF
Results:
100% Cotton Towel wins with average placement of 1.5! Second place is Ultra Fine MF from Pakshak with an average placement of 1.75. Third place is a tie between the CBT and Ultra MF at an average placement of 3.25.
I don't know exactly what to make of these results, if anything. I was surprised that the 100% cotton towel did so well. It looks to me like this "old school" tool is still a viable way to buff our cars.
Interestingly, before this test, my favorite towel was the CBT. It seems to do the best job out of any of the towels that I own in removing polish/wax. Will this test make me feel differently about using it? I doubt it. Although I might feel a tad safer using a Ultra Fine MF from Pakshak. Then again, the differences in the test were not huge, and I wonder if there would be any noticeable difference on the car at all, especially since, as stevet points out, none of these towels may actually scratch the paint/clearcoats on our cars!
I would love to hear of others results after performing this test.
