Polishing scratches out of glass

[Martin Pentreath]

At some point in the past someone has overenthusiatically sanded the window frames of my house, and managed to put small scratches around the edges of nearly all the windows. I'd like to polish the scratches out, and I've done some research through the archives to discover that jewellers' rouge is the stuff to get.

But I've also found this available from Screwfix

do the panel think? Anyone tried it? Seems to come with quite a small amount of 'polishing powder' and they don't sell the powder by itself.

Or would this stuff be any good?

[BigWallop]

as the metal polishing powder might be a bit to abrasive for glass. Toothpaste on a buffing pad is also ideal for glass because it isn't to abrasive either, and it leaves a lovely smell in the room. :-)

[Richard Savage]

Frost Auto Restorers sell a kit that is claimed to polish scratches out of car windscreens etc. I don't know if my scratches are too deep or I didn't press hard enough - little concerned that I might find out how much a Range Rover windscreen cost! - but it didn't work for me. So I'd love to hear how you get on with whatever you choose to use because I still have the scratches!

Richard

[John Rumm]

My Father In Law is a glass engraver, and is often asked if it is possible to remove scratches, or change/erase the engraving on glass. The usual answer is that while not 100% effective, you can significantly diminish most scratches with a rubber wheel on the end of a dremmel type tool.

[N. Thornton]

You mean with rouge on it?

Regards, NT

[Martin Pentreath]

Looks like the "bobbins" in

just rubber wheels.

I wonder whether the white powder is cerium oxide. I'm planning to order a kit once I've got enough other stuff on my shopping list to get the order up to £45 for free delivery ;-) I'll report back on progress.

[John Rumm]

I will ask - I have a feeling that he just uses a (hard) rubber wheel on its own. Having said that, most of the glass he is polishing is very soft (i.e. 24% lead crystal).

[John Rumm]

I asked my FIL

about hard glass (i.e. normal window glass) in particular, and this is the response:-

"Removing scratches from plain glass is a) difficult, B) tedious, c) time consuming. To do it properly (ie successfully) one needs a set of felt cones impregnated with diminishing sizes of polishing grits in paste form.

Endless patience is essential. ( I have a small kit of polishes and felt tips but not the patience!) Personally I only polish out engraving or scratches if I am going to re engrave the affected area since one is of course altering the surface level and thus the angles of reflection. There is a man in Purleigh who specialises in repairing scratched or broken glassware and he has a whole armoury of powered discs and belts."

So there you have it!

[Martin Pentreath]

OK, well I've got the screwfix kit. The bobbins are made of felt, and as far as I can tell the powder is cerium oxide. I've just spent about 30 minutes polishing some scratches out of my windows, and it does work, although progress is slow. The scratches I'm removing from the glass have been caused by someone sanding the frames, and they're not particularly deep, just annoying. Even though they aren't deep they still take quite a while to polish out, so I wouldn't fancy doing this if the scratches were much worse.

It seems a bit mean only providing two bobbins, I'm not sure they're going to last the course, and I don't want to shell out another £20 for two felt bobbins! Lots, more windows to polish yet, maybe I should have just reglazed the damn things :( Probably any sane person would live with scratches, I think I'm becoming obsessive.

Martin

[Pete C]

Hi,

Maybe filling the scratches with superglue, clear epoxy or windscreen repair and polishing that out would be easier.

cheers, Pete.