Removing scratches

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hello,

I have made a silver ring with quite an ornate pattern of wire
scrolls soldered to it.

Ther are some work scratches on the ring and I have tried with emery
papers to get rid of them but they are still there.

Any suggestions?
Thanks
Vicky

2

You could try the small polishing tools, the ones that are used with
the flexible shaft attachment.

Hema

3 
   I have made a silver ring with quite an ornate pattern of wire
scrolls soldered to it. Ther are some work scratches on the ring
and I have tried with emery papers to get rid of them but they are
still there.

Vicky,

I would suggest 3M Radial Discs. They are available in a variety of
sizes and grits. The smaller ones can be used with your flex shaft or
similar tools. The larger ones can be used with a typical polishing
motor. Starting with the coarser grits you can work your way up to a
high polish. No polishing compound is used with these discs. They are
a great addition to our arsenal of polishing equipment.

Joel Schwalb
@Joel_Schwalb

4

Hi Vicky

Depending on how much surface space you have on the ring I would use
a small water of ayr stone - you need to keep the surface wet whilst
using the stone, or if you are working in a tight space I would use
a bonded fibre glass polishing stick you can use dry and they have
smaller/ shaped ends making it easier to get into small spaces. Once
you’ve got rid of the scratches polish as normal. I have faar tooo
much experience of cleaning up scratched pieces of work!!!

Best wishes
Jeanette

5

Some times I use a small polishing tool on my Foredom, but other
times I use a 8 or 10 inch loose rag buffer to even out the area
with the rest of the peace.

Jerry

6

Some fingernail filing materials work well for some jobs. There are 3
or 4 grits of these that I know of. They are about 4 inches long and
are about 1 inch square. Many are white. Some are a yellow color.
They are firm enough to work on flat surfaces but because these are
pliable, they will work on rounded edges. The cost anywhere from 39
cents to maybe $1.50 depending on ?? who knows. Be careful of the
coarser ones. Try the finer grits first to see if they work. If they
don’t then go up one grit to see if it works.

Hope this helps.
Larry E. Whittington

7

There are times when the most effective way to remove scratches from
intricate work is to use a burnisher.

You may find that the commercially available burnishers may not be
small enough to fit into the areas that need attention. In this case
you can make your own.

I have gotten great results by using heavy gauge sewing needles and
old Xacto knife blades. You can shape these tools to fit your needs.
You can fit the needles into a pin vise and use an xacto blade handle
for the xacto blades.

Shape the home-made burnishers to fit into the problem areas of the
piece you are working with making sure that the very tip of the tool
is slightly rounded or blunted to prevent the tool from gouging the
work. Once the tool has the appropriate shape use various grits of
sand paper to bring the working surface of the tools to almost a
mirror finish, taking care to remove all scratches on the tool
surface. Then use polishing compounds to give the tool surfaces a
mirror finish. When you use the burnishers apply a little oil to the
tool so that it moves along the surface of the jewelry smoothly.

Good luck to you
Ted Curtis

8

No matter which medium I’m working in (metal, stone, wood, etc.) the
only process for removing scratches that works for me is to use an
abrasive with a heavy enough grit to match the scratches I’m trying
to remove, then using progressively finer grits. Use magnification
of some kind (loupe, OptiVisor, etc.) to see if the sanding stick,
emery or sandpaper, Craytex wheel, heatless mizzy, etc., is matching
the size and depth of the scratches you’re trying to remove. When
you’ve gotten to that point, progressively finer abrasives will
bring up the polish you’re looking for.

James in SoFl

9 
 There are some work scratches on the ring and I have tried with
emery papers to get rid of them but they are still there.

Hi Vicky,

You were doing the right thing, but the trick is to sand along the
scratch not perpendecular, otherwise you tend to deapen the scratch
instead of eliminating it! that goes for polishing too! If you want
to get rid of scratches by using polishing compounds, you always have
to polish along the scratch.

all the best,
ekrem.

10

Hi Ekrem,

Sorry, but I think you’ve got the directions backwards. I always
polish across the last direction sanded. If you sand or polish in the
same direction as the scratch or groove the tendency is to drag it
and make a longer mark … Polishing across the same scratch should
eliminate it …

Hopefully …
Mark

11 
 [snip] ...progressively finer abrasives will bring up the polish
you're looking for.

I just want to add to what James said–

My personal success in bringing things up to a fine finish has been
very much improved since I bought two assortments of 3M papers from
Rio (page 248 of the tools catalog). One is the Wetordry Tri-M-Ite
polishing papers, the other Imperial Micro-Finishing Film. I love
these papers! With them, you can move up in small steps, without
doing a whole lot of work with any one, and end up with a beautiful
pre-polish, or leave the burnished-looking matt or semi-matt finish
you reach along the way. I know I sound like an ad, but I really
really like these papers. They are a huge improvement over the
regular, black, wet/dry papers in 320, 400, 600 that I have always
used. I can actually get pieces to a mirror finish (something I
really don’t generally do) with minimal effort.

Noel

12

Hi Mark,

  Sorry, but I think you've got the directions backwards.

I always polish across the last direction sanded.

If you sand or polish in the same direction as the scratch or
groove the tendency is to drag it and make a longer mark ...
Polishing across the same scratch should eliminate it ...

You are absolutely right about that Mark. Somehow I’ve got the
directions backwards.

I also owe an oppology to vicky for miss leading.

All the best,
ekrem.