Scratched stones

[ps_bond]

In my fun with flush setting the mother of pearl, I scratched it. Soft stone, fairly soft but still not soft enough tools - it's going to happen.

To fix this, I cut a cocktail stick into short lengths (around 1cm) then, using some cheap diamond lapping pastes from EBay (the Chinese pastes - cheap, but they work) I used the cocktail stick nubs as polishers in the flexshaft (chuck handpiece, obviousl) and worked down through the grits to about 0.5u to take out the scratches. You don't need very much paste, but you do need to change sticks for different grits. As the sticks are now impregnated with diamond grit, you could save them (individually bag with the approriate paste) although I didn't bother.

Not much use for chipped ones, admittedly. If you've got the magnification you can polish facets if you're careful though.

[medusa]

that's interesting. I put a huge scratch into a rather nice pearl (not quite sure how it happened, it just appeared!) and had given it up as lost. Will ahve to get some of these lapping pastes

[ps_bond]

I'm not sure how well that'll work on pearl if you cut through the nacre - hopefully Pearlescence might have some insight?

[theresa]

Hi Peter, would these pastes work on other stones , eg Labradorite, Lapis that have been scratched?

Theresa

[ps_bond]

They're diamond... They'll cut anything. Just don't get too carried away!
As an example - I don't think I bought mine from this seller: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12pcs-X-5g...-/271252123425
They'll also help put mirror finishes onto burnishers, for example.

[pearlescence]

The other way to deal with scratches in pearls is to peel them, remove the layers like peeling an onion. I've never done it but I've heard of it being done.
Worth a try I suppose but not worth a great deal of time and effort for freshwaters. Maybe for a very good tahitian or south sea maybe