Removing scratches from glass

mrclean81

mrclean81

New member
I have a friend who does a lot of work with fine glass and crystal. For whatever reason, a lot of this stuff gets sandblasted. From the way he describes, when the glass is wiped down, it gets these fine scratches that are impossible to avoid. Apparently these are very high dollar pieces for higher profile clients who pick them to death and complain about these microscopic scratches. He came to me asking what he can use to remove them. Diamondite Glass Restorer was the first thing that came to mind, but I want some more opinions first. Keep in mind he is an artist and will be working by hand on very intricate and very expensive pieces, much of it crystal.
 
mrclean81 said:
I have a friend who does a lot of work with fine glass and crystal. For whatever reason, a lot of this stuff gets sandblasted. From the way he describes, when the glass is wiped down, it gets these fine scratches that are impossible to avoid. Apparently these are very high dollar pieces for higher profile clients who pick them to death and complain about these microscopic scratches. He came to me asking what he can use to remove them. Diamondite Glass Restorer was the first thing that came to mind, but I want some more opinions first. Keep in mind he is an artist and will be working by hand on very intricate and very expensive pieces, much of it crystal.
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Glass is a specialty just like a paint specialist. One way wrong can lead to a bad result. I have found with older vehicles it is hard to find someone who correct these things without problems. Other glasses can
Be even more difficult. The major thing is heat.
 
I'm not even really sure what it is that he's been making. I know he mentioned some fine glasses and things like that, but I do know that its all small stuff and it would be getting polished by hand.
 
I've done this before with the wife's windshield. Wiper scratches that were very noticeable.

The solution worked with the glass from the windshield and would work for your friend's crystal also. It's not a quick solution but it's a solution.

Cerium Oxide.

That stuff is a fine glass polishing powder, made to polish glass telescope lenses. Yup, it polishes glass.

Eastman or JC Whitney sells a windshield kit for sub 50 bucks I think.

The kit includes a few oz. of the pink Cerium Oxide and a felt mandrel for working on windshields.
Make up a slurry of the Cerium Oxide and water. Use the felt mandrel to polish the glass. Stop every once in a while to let the heat dissipate and check your progress. Repeat until the scratches are gone.

With the wife's windshield, the total job took about 1.5 hrs and was tedious. Tedious yes, but it worked. No optical distortions that I could see either. We used the Camaro for another 3 years without even the hint of a visibility issue.

So, imagine instead of a huge felt mandrel, your buddy uses a small felt mandrel with a variable speed dremel. A Cerium Oxide slurry plus the dremel with a felt pad. Work for a few minutes ensuring the crystal doesn't get too hot. Stop, examine, repeat.

Again, Cerium Oxide is made to polish telescope glass lenses so it's not going to be an issue with crystal. It's made to polish glass after all.

Better yet, have him go to a rock shop and buy some cerium oxide there, then go to a hardware shop and buy a little felt mandrel or two for his dremel and he'll be good to go.
-John C.
 
CarPro CeriGlass is a cerium oxide abrasive polish that is designed to remove defects from glass.

Glass is extremely hard and requires a lot of polishing, even with a CeriGlass.

You will need (IME) felt glass pads: Lake Country 4 Inch Glass Cutting Pads 3 Pack

A rotary polisher

A spray bottle of water.

Arm strength.


Like paint, polish a section at a time. Unlike paint use firm to heavy pressure and work in overlapping passes.

The water will serve to purposes. If the polish appears to flash off add a mist of water and continue polishing. The cerium oxide abrasives won't really "break down" and adding water will extend their working time.

The water also acts to cool the surface. Stop periodically and check the temperature of the glass. If it is hot to the touch mist some water on the surface and allow it steam off for a little bit (and pull the heat away).

The front windshield is safety glass, which means their is a thin layer of plastic between the two sheets of glass. If you get the windshield too hot the plastic can distort which will cause a fish bowl effect.

After the marks are removed you may have fine holograms in the windshield.

To remove the hologram effect switch to a dual action polisher and a finer glass polish (still using the glass pad) such as Diamondite Glass Restorer.

Plan on spending several hours on the first cutting pass as it is really tedious work.

 
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