Crystal polishing

[transporter]

Guys has anyone had any success with polishing scratches out of glass crystals using cerium oxide paste?

 

[JBerry]

I've polished this way by hand a couple of times, starting first with 600 grit sand paper, then moving finer towards 2400 grit, and finally cerium oxide worked into a paste. This took a great deal of time by hand (with a wheel I'm sure it would be a lot quicker) and I would only do it again if very stuck. Some of the deeper scratches I just gave up on removing.

Polishing acrylic crystals is so much more satisfying, and Sensodyne toothpaste is a lot nicer to work with than cerium oxide paste

 

[transporter]

Cheers for the info mate, I’ve got a Fashion watch ( Gucci 1500L ) that I picked up for a steal. I have a replacement crystal from cousins 20mm x 9mm flat rectangular, got the size from esslinger (220x090) so fingers crossed the Stern Kreuz one will fit if the polishing doesn’t work. As for the bracelet and case that’s getting the good news with stainless cutting compound then polishing compound after. All getting done with the dremel so hopefuly all goes well.

[jdrichard]

I made a video on polishing a crystal using 2000grit paper


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[transporter]

Nice mate, I started this evening with the dremel, it’s nice and shiney but there are a couple of deeper scratches that I don’t think will come out.

so I think I will be getting a new one, as you can see esslinger stock them, I’ve done a product request through cousins as he sternkruez one I bought is too big.

 

[Bauertime]

I hate these so called non scratch modern crystals. I usually scratch them the first few days of ownership. Then you need to almost burn out the dremel motor to polish it out with diamond paste. If they where good quality plastic, I could rub it on a piece of leather with some polish paste and be done with it in under five minutes.

[jdm]

3 hours ago, Bauertime said:

I hate these so called non scratch modern crystals. I usually scratch them the first few days of ownership. Then you need to almost burn out the dremel motor to polish it out with diamond paste. If they where good quality plastic, I could rub it on a piece of leather with some polish paste and be done with it in under five minutes.

 

That is because as mentioned above scratches are removed first with wet paper, not diamond paste that is for finishing only. If you want not to worry anymore replace with sapphire that can be bought starting from 5 or 6 euro. 

[Bauertime]

That's what I do with plastic crystals. I'm afraid to put any more scratches in a mineral crystal. By the way the ones I have scratched have been sapphire and the Invicta flame-fusion crystals. They scratch very easily, in my opinion. I like plastic but not Russian plastic. They will scratch if you look them wrong.

[Johnnie]

On plastic I use Tcut, works very well, if badly scratched I use cutting compound first and then Tcut to finish.

[KayMan]

I've done it once, to get rid of a deep gouge in the glass crystal of an LCD watch.   I used wet papers starting with 400 grit and ending with 5000 grit, then cerium oxide applied with a Dremel at low speed to polish.  The end result looks perfect after removing about 0.2mm of glass in total, which took 5 hours work.  I'd think twice before attempting it again, much less hassle to source a new crystal if possible.  For acrylic I use Meguiar's Plast-RX which works just the same as Polywatch at about 100th of the cost - £8 for a 250ml bottle from Halfords in the UK.

[jdrichard]

Here is a video I make years ago on how to restore a watch crystal.

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