The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Does anyone know anything about these- ie. if they work and if they don;t make matters worse?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BECO-TITANIUM-STE ... 3825wt_997

My watch is brushed, and I've heard you guys talking about Cape Cod as well. I don't know anything about polishing scratches and whatnot, so any advice would be appreciated.

_________________
Follow me through my Journalism degree

I believe that they work on Titanium, but not sure about brushed steel.

The cape cods (or sunshines) are only for polished steel.

I think the chances of it giving the correct level of grain to match factory brushing are quite remote.

I use these abrasive impregnated rubber blocks for brushed finishes. Cheap enough to buy a selection of grades to suite different finishes

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Garryflex-Block-F ... 3c95b86655

I have one of these pens, it works on brushed steel, you should not use it on polished steel, it will make it look brushed.

Also, it is very difficult to use it on a bigger surface, it takes a very long time and its hard work to keep rubbing for hours. Polishing a bracelet would probobly take me a year or two, so only for very small surfaces....... but the principal works.

_________________
Navitimer, Steelfish, Colt GMT, Aerospace, Chronospace, Chrono Superocean

Mart, how exactly do these work? Is abrasive corrosive?

Is this what you "feed" the polishing machine before polishing or is it also for "hand" use?

_________________
Navitimer, Steelfish, Colt GMT, Aerospace, Chronospace, Chrono Superocean

The fiberglass pens will brush steel. So yes they work... But to get them to brush the steel in the exact direction, and to the exact depth necessary to match a factory finish is nearly impossible. "Spot re-finishing" just never works well. If you want to get rid of a scratch, you usually have to refinsih the entire surface that the scratch is on, not just the scratch itself. Also, the fiberglass pen loses fiberglass fibers, which are sharp and easily imbedded into your fingers as a splinter. These glass slpinters do not break down and can become very painful, itchy, and in some cases can work their way deeper and into the bloodstream. I tried the pen once, and was terribly disappointed with the lack of control, and uneven finish, and for days I was finding the glass "hairs" around my work area. Never again.

I use scotch brite pads, available from automotive supply stores, painting equipment stores, and recently I found a bulk pack of the green strength pads in the kitchen dept at Walmart. Green is the best level for most brushed finishes. Mask off the areas to be brushed using masking tape. Then very carefully and slowly, use the pad, or a small piece of the pad, to carefully brush in the exact same direction as the factory grain. The direction of the grain is the most important part to getting a good result. When brushing a bracelet, first mask off the polished sides of the links. Then lay the scotch brite pad on a flat surface, and then lay the bracelet face down on the pad. Now run the bracelet lengthwise (in the direction of the factory grain) carefully and very straight, with slight pressure pushing down. One of these days I'll do a brushing tutorial for most of the more common tasks. I did this one for a smooth bezel... http://www.enzomechana.com/em/forum/vie ... ?f=3&t=117

One last piece of advice... if you don't know what you are doing, you can quickly make a mess of your watch. Sometimes it is better to leave it to the pros. I purchased a few where the previous owner had attempted to refinish it and instead reduced the value of it instead of increasing it. *** note I am a commercial artist with background in technical airbrush, illustration, and very detailed work, so I have the hands of a surgeon (in a jar under my bed..LOL just kidding)***

_________________

Thanks for the advice folks. Fantastic post and tutorial, Mark! If you go ahead with your idea of producing more tutorials it would be superb. My BB is a combination of polished and brushed, I'd like to get some scratches out of the brushed clasp cover on the bracelet and the polished side of the case. I imagine a rub with a cape cod would sort the case out, but I'm even nervous about doing that!

_________________
Follow me through my Journalism degree

The cape cod will work well on the polished case, just be sure to isolate the rubbing to the polished area, or else you will polish any brushed surfaces too. I actually prefer Sunshine cloths, available on eBay. The do the same job, without the messy liquid or annoying vanilla smell. Much cleaner and easier to work with. I find that if I mask the watch and use a cape cod, the liquid in the cape cod cloth will lift my masking tape. This doesn't happen with the sunshine cloths.

Another note... [u]always keep the two mediums seperated[/u]. Do not use your polishing cloths in the same work area as your brushing pads. The brushing pads will always be losing tiny abrasive dust, and if that dust gets on your polishing cloths, then you will end up with major swirlies when you think you are polishing. I do all my brushing first, usually on a sheet of news paper, then fold in the news paper, throw it away, clean my work area thoroughly, then bring out the polishing cloths.

_________________

By the way, I can understand you being nervous. To try for the first time on a BB i s daunting. I learned to do this as I worked my way up through Alphas, Seikos, Citizens, where the dollar values are not intimidating. Do you have any beaters you could practice on? The clasp brushing is easy, but you should feel comfortable before you attempt it.

_________________

They are very simple to use. If you can imagine a large pencil eraser about the size of a deck of cards. They can be cut down into any shape/size you want. The abrasive is impregnated into the rubber.
They do shed material as you use them, so as Mark has already said, best to lay out a sheet of paper and throw it away when done. Use a can of compressed air, or rinse the watch off before any polishing.

The abrasive rubber blocks are completely different to the polishing compounds used on buffing wheels.

The beauty of them is they give a 'factory' finish. There are no machines involved so quite difficult to do any damage. I have 3 grades, and that allows me to match slightly different levels of brushed grain