Scratch removal on a globe, any tips?

[Astralav]

Hi,

I've got few scratches on my Fluidium Grande, including a deep one.

Do you know any tips to remove them?

Thanks

PS: I've got some polishing kit for Aluminium, but I think it will leave the glass opaque.

[Pierre Brazeau]

Hi,cerium oxide will do just nicely. Make a slurry of dish soap, just enough to act as a lubricant and water and cerium oxide,and soak a cotton cloth with this slurry,then begin polishing out the scratches. If you find your not getting speed in polishingadd some extra cerium oxide on the cloth and continue polishing. Check your progress from time to time. Keep your cloth moist to damp, it acts as binding agent of sort holding the cerium oxide where you want it. All things being equal    engineering a way to put an electric hand drill in this endeavour would greatly increase the polishing action, reducing the time needed to accomplish this task. FYI cerium oxide has a cream to slightly pinkish hue and is used in polishing the bevels on mirrors to polishing optical glass for telescopes binocular prism, lens. Most glass shops usually carry some. I'm sure the owners would be happy to sell you some. The deep scratche might need more patience or if it's too deep maybe just polishing the scratche into a hollow would be fine. Like they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.You would be the judge to what appeals to you. This cerium oxide is aggressive enough polish fast and gentle enough to leave a nice finish. Telescope making stores also carry this oxide. Hope this helps. 

 

[Astralav]

Thanks for this great tip! (never heard of it before)

I just searched this "cerium oxide" on the web, and it sounds great.

I will try it.

[Pierre Brazeau]

Hi, hope this helps also. I've bought some optical making stuff from this web site, they've got all kinds of goodies for grinding and polishing glass of all kinds. They sell cerium oxide in different size packs from 5 lbs to I believe a few ounces.Unless a person is very serious about polishing glass the smaller packs are much more reasonable for the kind of project your undertaking. I've purchased half the grits thats needed for my projects and that cost me well over $400.00 canadian. But the things that can be done with this is almost endless. Willman-bell Inc. is the company in question and they were &are very reasonable to deal with. Sorry, I should have mentioned this the last around, had to get some shut-eye for my longest library run. I clean libraries. Hope you have tons of fun with all this. Thats my # 1 reason for all this " FUN".