[abo_hosni]

Several members described their experience in removing scratches (polishing) sapphire crystal. Sapphire could get easily scratched by diamond (my wife's ring in my case), granite or marble stones.

I managed to get rid of an annoying scratch (between 3 & 4 O'clock). a Good experience with happy ending. Here are the photos of the whole process.

I used 2 grades of diamond paste (2.5 microns + 0.5 micron)

Some oily paste will eventually spill, though. Will take some time to wipe off later

Here's the major scratch + a minor one not apparent in the photo

Started with a tooth pick

used the 2.5u first

Continued with the dremel polishing wool. BECAREFUL of overheating the crystal & the watch

Simply, GONE

 

[ilitig8]

Very nice, thanks for the pictures, will keep this in the back of my mind, just in case!

 

[Igorek]

Nice, and I thought sapphire crystal is scratch resistant

 

[CitizenM]

Be careful though, I've actually seen people crack the sapphire like this.

 

[averagejoe303]

Wow. This is a game changer. Can similar methods be applied to mineral crystals? Also, how easy is it to get diamond paste?

 

[Nokie]

Very nice.

Diamond paste, don't leave home without it.

Just Google it as it can be found from a number of vendors, but from experience, I can tell you if you have not used a compound like this before, do some homework and/or watch some YouTube vids and practice first until you get the hang of it.

There is a fine line between correcting everything and superheating and cracking or warping something, if you use a buffer, so practice a bit.

Diamond Paste is a lapping paste with micro fine diamond particles usually suspended in a water or petroleum based compound with other binding agents.

It comes in a number of fine grades of abrasion, usually color coded by the grade of coarseness.

Just like wet sanding something, you start with one grit and move on until it is finished out, as noted in the pix above, always using the correct tools.

You should see what it does for edging out one of my Benchmade knives when it gets too dull for me. I could shave with it when finished.

 

[richnyc]

Wow, pretty cool. Bookmarked for future reference, in case it's needed

 

[abo_hosni]

Nice, and I thought sapphire crystal is scratch resistant

It's extremely resistant, but not scratch proof.

Be careful though, I've actually seen people crack the sapphire like this.

Yes, that's why I typed "BE CAREFUL" in caps when warning about overheating

Wow. This is a game changer. Can similar methods be applied to mineral crystals? Also, how easy is it to get diamond paste?

I'm not sure if this works well with mineral crystals. I assume scratches on mineral glass would be much more deeper than those on sapphire. So, you will have to take off a thicker layer of glass around the scatch edges to get it flat, loosing more material, with more deformed surface. Crystal Replacement is another good option

 

[Nokie]

Yes there are better options for mineral crystal than diamond paste.

 

[WIS_Chronomaster]

Nice work.

 

[sticky]

I'd heard it could be done but this is the first time I've seen pics of it - thanks for posting.

 

[abo_hosni]

It works amazingly on stainless steel. With less effort & time than for sapphire.

I managed to polish some superficial scratches (more deep than hair line) from a stainless steel case. Less than a minute using tooth pick & diamond paste

I'm really impressed

 

[frogger17]

It works amazingly on stainless steel. With less effort & time than for sapphire.

I managed to polish some superficial scratches (more deep than hair line) from a stainless steel case. Less than a minute using tooth pick & diamond paste

I'm really impressed

Thanks for sharing your experience. :-!

Regarding the SS, was the resulting finish, brushed or polished? I assume the latter.

 

[abo_hosni]

Yes, it's a polished finish SS case

 

[Will3020]

excellent work showing the actual process :-!

 

[monza06]

Is it going to work if instead that buffing tool you use a piece of cloth or something and rub it by hand ??

 

[frogger17]

Yes, it's a polished finish SS case

Thanks.

 

[bamagrad03]

Am I correct in assuming that this wouldn't work with a crystal that has outer AR coating?

 

[abo_hosni]

Is it going to work if instead that buffing tool you use a piece of cloth or something and rub it by hand ??

You can do the job using your finger tip, but it takes more effort & elbow grease

Am I correct in assuming that this wouldn't work with a crystal that has outer AR coating?

It will remove the AR coat, of course

 

[dxdelafu]

Well, this is interesting. I went through the process described above by abo_hosni. I have a Tag Heuer Link, Calibre S. Great watch that I consider my daily driver. I've owned this watch since 2008 and over time it has developed several scratches and marks that have bothered me for some time. It's a sapphire crystal, so although incredibly hard, it does develop marks and scratches that no amount of cleaning removes them. So again, I followed the instructions above and all the scratches and marks were removed. HOWEVER, I now have what appears to be burn marks on the crystal that only appear at certain angles. But they are there. I've tried cleaning the crystal with a jewelry cleaner and they will not go away. Having said that, I'm not regretting going through this process. The marks that have been there for years are completely gone. And since you have to get the perfect light and angle to see the "burn" marks, I don't think it's that big of an issue. Hope this helps anyone attempting the process described above.
dxdelafu (5/15/2017)