How would one polish

[Bdevenney]

A hazy scratchy stainless steel to a mirror finish?

[kenhiraihnl]

Have you tried Cape Cod Cloth?
BTW, if you want the best finish, soak a piece of lens cleaning tissue with the juice from a Cape Cod Cloth, wrap the tissue around a Q-tip and use it that way. Less micro-scratches and swirls. Heed the good suggestions in the thread.

[Tools]

Polishing Stainless Steel is pretty straight forward..

If it is heavily scratched, then you need to sand down the surface to a smooth and even look...... Usually using finer and finer grit paper, wet is best. 1000 grit is a good final finish before buffing.

Once that is done; you buff using finer and finer buffing compound until it is finished the way you want...


If you're just talking about some surface blemishes, as said, a cape cod cloth is a good choice but takes a bit of elbow grease..

[Rikki]

Depending on the seriousness of the scratches I use a Medium Norton Beartex satin wheel at 3400 rpm till the surface is even. Next I use Zam on a cotton buff at 3400 rpm then finish off with Menzerna Yellow compound to give it that beryllium finish. Rik

[Puffy]

let's see a close up of the scratch...

[slcbbrown]

Originally Posted by Bdevenney

A hazy scratchy stainless steel to a mirror finish?

If you are talking about polishing a watch that was made to have a texture (like a Sub), and you want to polish all the way to "dress watch shiny". It can be a job for a pro. Making surfaces shiny is simple, but polishing a multi-curved surface without wrecking it is not easy. Many watches are built with a non-shiny surface because it's much easier and cheaper for the manufacturer. A mirror surface is often the mark of a real craftsman, even though shiny isn't usually the choice for sport models.

Holding the corners, bevels, etc. is difficult on a surface as curvy as a watch case.