I'm talking about the stuff you use when you're polishing.
According to [etymonline.com](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=polish&searchmode=none), this usage has been around for less than 200 years:

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> polish (n.) 
>  1590s, "absence of coarseness," from polish (v.). From 1704 as "act of polishing;" 1819 as "substance used in polishing."
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Surely there would have been a need before then for a generic word, to include whatever sorts of materials were used for the purpose (wax, ash, rubbing pastes etc). Clearly the *verb* "to polish" was applied to a wide variety of subject matter (from the 14th Century onwards). It would be surprising if the respective polishing agents were so specialised that they weren't referred to collectively. 

Was a different word used, that was then replaced by "polish"? Or is the date wrong? 

I've failed to find anything older; searching for "some polish" before 1800 brings up things like 

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> "being first also figured on the hones, with a little putty washed very fine and fair water; till it begins to shew some polish." 
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from *A Complete System Of Opticks* by Robert Smith, 1738. Could *putty* be a candidate?

**Edit** - In summary: was another word used for 'all the various substances used for polishing', before the modern noun *polish*?