Removing Scratches

[chris mabbott]

Hi all,

Does anyone have a method to reduce tiny scratches from the movement plates and give it a nice shine. Manually that is, by hand. I don’t use an ultrasonic cleaner or any machines, all by elbow grease

Chris

[david pierce]

Chris,
The basic principal of polishing metal is the same regardless of the method that is used. That is, scratches are replaced with finer scratches then those scratches are replaced with finer scratches and the process can be carried up to a mirror finish if desired. With plastic injection molds rough diamond paste would start the process then finer and finer diamond paste would be used until the core and/or cavity looked like mirrors. With woodworking tools a 1000 grit stone would start the process then a 2000 grit stone,4000 grit stone up to a 10,000 grit stone with the same result; the chisel or planer blade would have a mirror finish. The most common process for watch parts is to make a small paste with graduated grit powders mixed with oil and rub the part on a zinc plate. As you switch to the next grit, different plates must be used to avoid contaminating the finer grit with rough grit. I don’t know if Cousins UK carries the supplies but I think that they would. If not, companies that carry injection mold supplies carry this type of stuff.
david

[chris mabbott]

Thanks much Dave for the detailed info. I may be having a bald moment but, I didn’t know that they offered, at least commercially, a 10k grit stone. Any idea where a person could pick these up?

One concern I always have when I think about using some form of compound, is the demaskeening and the black fill used to make it stand out, sorry, I can’t remember what the black is called right now LOL Is there a way around not effecting this, other than leaving it be.

Chris

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Chis,
Will want to be careful and determine if the plates have gilt or some other form of plating. Unlike most brass clock plates many watch plates have some form of plating which polishing will remove.
Also…are you talking about Black wax?
EDIT: I see you mentioned damaskeening. Is this possibly an American movement with nickel plates?

Enjoy,
Bob

[chris mabbott]

Hi Bob, yes it is for American pocket watches with nickel plates. I’ve had a couple that have been badly scratched, dull, dirty, most of the black wax (thank you) had chipped away. It was a shame because under those scratches are the nice demaskeening.

I was tempted to try a fine diamanteen paste, or red rouge, but I wanted to check out all possibilities first.

Which leads me to the other question about re-black waxing

Chris

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Chris,
I’m not really up on polishing those nickel plates. I just use a blue rouge but that’s not going to actually cut the metal to remove the scratches. If the scratches are very shallow and no damage will be done to the damaskeening then I suppose any cutting compound will work and then just gradually work up to the finest as David suggests until reaching the blue rouge or whatever polishing compound you decide to use. The wax I use is just engravers wax. It’s used for filling clock and watch dial numerals and dial engravings. Very low melting temperature ( I think something around 200 F but don’t hold me to that). You can get it at just about any clock and watch supply house or engravers supply. Sometimes referred to as Dial wax but I think it’s pretty much engravers wax? Not sure about that either though.
That’s probably not much help but thought I would throw it up here just in case.
Good luck Chris,
Bob

[david pierce]

Chris,
The 10,000 grit is a KING Japanese water stone I bought from HIGHLAND WOODWORKING. With that you can polish a piece of metal to a mirror finish. You should be able to pull them up on the internet. If you can’t, let me know and I will dig up their address for you.
david

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