[Jewelry making - Article 01064] - Re: [Orchid] Repairing scratches in stones

[Peter W . Rowe]

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    Karin, the type of "scratches" one gets from accidental contact with
    setting hammers and burnuishers are generally deep enough that minor
    polishing while still set won't do the job on facetted stones. 
    You'll most likely need to cut them back out and have them properly
    repolished.  The reason is simply that nothing you can do with, say,
    a flex shaft, will give you a poperly flat facet, and the little
    wavey curved surface you'd get trying to take out the damage won't
    look much better than the damage itself.  Now, your opal, or other
    cabs, on the other hand, can be helped, though it's not usually quite
    as good as removing the stones and repolishing, since usually the
    damage is right next to the bezel metal, and you can't get in there
    and feather it into the existing surface perfectly.  But for the
    opal,  there are a number of rubber wheels that will do the job,
    including some that use diamond as the imbedded abrasive (Stuller or
    Rio carry them, among others.  They're pricey, but last quite a
    while).  Also there are a number of such wheels that use aluminum
    oxide or silicon carbide abrasive, and the very fine semi-polish to
    polishing grits will often help minor scratches in soft stones.  Or
    use a bit of cerium oxide, wet, on a small felt wheel.  Or lapidary
    diamond paste compound on that same wheel, etc. 

Peter

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