POLISHING WITH ROUGE ETC

To buy the products listed LIKE THIS, click here

To find out how to remove tarnish from silver without using a polish, click here

This is how scratches are removed in a windscreen factory. Use a polishing motor on its slowest speed.  Use a large cotton mop.  While the mop is spinning apply by holding the BLOCK OF ROUGE against it. The rouge is very soft, it will come off easily, there is no need to mix it with anything. If the scratch is deep enough to feel with your fingernail it is too deep to remove by polishing.  I assume that if this method works on car windscreens it also works on ordinary windows and on shop counters and on glass watch 'crystals' (it won't have any effect at all on sapphire 'crystals').

I tried to remove a myriad of fine scratches from a car mirror without a polishing motor.  After 6 or 7mns of very hard rubbing with a soft cloth (having heavily smeared it with rouge) I came to the conclusion that it wasn't making the slightest difference and I gave up.  That is not to say it might not have worked if I had kept rubbing for several minutes more…but I don't have the patience…and the mirror remains scratched.

There are other uses for rouge. It is the compound used in makeup for making the face red. It can be mixed with isinglass and applied to the insides of iron rings (piston rings) in the engines of old cars to take up the imperfections of the ring (though this method is not used in modern cars). Any more suggestions welcome, email me.

For clear plastics such as acrylics (including 'watch crystals'') use the other compound, the one I call SCRATCH REMOVER. Mix it with water to form a paste the consistency of double cream, apply with a small felt mop on a miniature polishing motor, go carefully - you are only polishing a scratch not drilling for oil.  This is the powder used in the aircraft industry for polishing the acrylic canopies of aircraft. As with the rouge, it will only work on fine scratches.

The same applies to spectacles lenses (check carefully to see if they are made of glass or plastic). If you have a choice between throwing them away or trying to remove the scratches, then give it a go, but never polish lenses that cost hundreds of pounds (e.g. on cameras, binoculars, telescopes and expensive spectacles). Firstly, you risk polishing vigorously until all scratches are removed, but you have also changed the shape of the lens or polished 'flats' into it (which would make it unusable and worthless); secondly, most modern lenses are coated and you will remove the coatings.

For cleaning jewellery (gold and silver) IN A WORKSHOP:
- use a soft cotton mop on a polishing motor (e.g. 6 inch mop), as it's spinning press the stick of rouge against it until the mop turns red, then press the jewellery against the mop. For the insides of ring use a cone instead of a mop. Any crevices, especially the backs of stones, will become dark red from the rouge. This is normal. Wash out in an ultra sonic cleaner and dry by throwing it into a big bowl of hot sawdust (e.g. an enamel bowl full of sawdust on a gas or electric heating ring).

For cleaning jewellery (gold and silver) IN THE HOME:
- use a soft cloth, smear on the rouge (using either the ROUGE BLOCK or ROUGE POWDER), then polish using a cotton polishing cloth or, better still, POLISHING MITTENS. For the inside of a ring use several strands of linen thread, tie one end to an immovable object, smear with rouge, slide the strands inside the ring, pull taught, rub the ring up and down. Any crevices, especially the backs of stones, will become dark red from the rouge. This is normal. Wash the item in hot soapy water, cleaning the backs of the stones with a soft toothbrush, then leave to dry on tissue, give it final shine with a GOLD POLISHING CLOTH.

To remove tarnish (blackening) from silver there is a special chemical, and we have a SILVER CLEANING CLOTH that is impregnated with this chemical.

If you have any other tips about polishing scratches, email me.