pbman, my problem was that I assigned my material to a Phong E material rather than a Blinn and I didn't know how to add the HDRI map file before

Esion, thanks. my gear looks a lot more realistic after i smoothed its teeth. https://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-6/1190298/gear2.jpg

I just need to make it look more metallic.