Reply To: Can you polish a glass crystal

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Watchdogg,
Yes you can polish glass crystals. It takes a little patience (can take hours if glass is badly scratched) but is fun to do. Rouge does work for tiny scratches but is EXTREMELY slow. Cerium Oxide powder is much quicker and works well for very tiny scratches. For deeper scratches I use wet and dry abrasive sheets, wet with water starting with 220 (or rougher if scratches are very deep) progressing up to 2000 then I use cerium oxide made into a paste. It’s important to clean the glass throughly between each sanding process. I do the sanding by hand but there is probably a better way to do it. I then use a felt wheel on my dremel tool for polishing with the cerium paste. This probably isn’t the best way but I’ve used the process many times with success. I’ve also experimented with automotive valve lapping compound followed up with cerium paste which worked as well.

Hope this helps Watchdogg,
Enjoy
Bob