I‘ve seen many dozens of ceramic inserts but don’t recall ever seeing one that needed polishing. They’ve all had mirror-like finishes. Maybe there’s some bad ones I haven’t seen.
That Polinum sounds really good. I’ll grab some with my next order. Thanks for the tip!
Have you ever tried the blue and yellow abrasive wheels? Insanely great shapers and polishers but very small so they have to be used carefully and are probably not a good choice for larger surfaces.
I've not seen one in hand that needed polishing either but I did notice these XING inserts look a little dull in pics.
I haven't tried the blue and yellow abrasive wheels, I'll have a look, thanks.
So I polished a couple of cracked inserts (I almost never throw anything away, haha) and here's what I found.
Both inserts have mirror finish top sides so were unaffected by the polishing but neither were the markers disturbed with the wheel I used.
The undersides were a coarser texture, so this type of polishing isn't going to smooth that down on ceramic. However there was quite an improvement in base shininess in just a very few minutes so I would definitely try this if I wanted a glossier top surface. The improvement should be greater on a smooth surface.
Just be careful around the triangle but these cutouts are not deep and I didn't disturb it at all.
Top pics show polished area, bottom pics show unpolished. The green insert showed a little less improvement but it has a coarser finish.
Of course practice on a junk insert first, and don't clean with an ultrasound, it can loosen and displace marker fill. Ask me how I know, heh.
Polinum is the best compound I've used on all jewelry parts to get an absolutely flawless mirror finish. It's awesome for bracelets and cases, etc. I final sand with very fine grit paper - not micro fine, but like 7000. At that point without a loupe you could almost think it had already been buffed. Then the Polinum does its magic.
I've not ever polished the topside of a dull insert because I've never had one but my tests with Polinum on the underside bode well for an attempt. You just need to be consistent all the way around as Polinum works gradually on ceramic so time spent in every spot needs to be the same.
On the plus side, there should be a level of glossiness beyond which further polishing has no more effect.
@JustFou