Safety is always a top priority before beginning the polishing and shine process.  It's necessary to protect both your hands and eyes by wearing an OSHA approved set of safety glasses for eye protection and wrapping your fingers with finger tape. For this demonstration will be polishing a 14-karat white gold ring, something very similar to what you'll receive.  It contains a one-carat diamond with melee stones on the shank. The tools we are using for this demonstration are a flex shaft that features a quick-change handpiece to allow for fast brush changes, a bristle brush, an inside felt wheel, round string buff, ultrasonic, and a lint-free cloth.  All of the tools and products featured in this video are available for purchase on Stuller.com.

Once you have protected yourself with the necessary safety wear and have gathered your materials, you are now ready to begin the three-step process that will have your ring polished, shined, and ready to sell. Before proceeding with the first step, it's necessary to examine the ring by assessing what needs to be polished.  Determining if deep scratches are present and identifying any defects made in the metals from wear and use. Begin first with applying the grey star compound to a soft mounted bristle brush. This compound is designed for smoothing rough edges and removing deep scratches. Apply light pressure to the flex shaft pedal. Please note that none of these steps require to be performed at high speeds.  For this ring, start with the shoulder area and move towards the head.  Generally the outside bottom part of the shank has the most wear. When polishing the area take special note to keep your brush at an angle. Moving back and forth in a perpendicular motion could round out the bottom of the shank thereby causing the ring to lose its shape.

The next step is shining the inside of the ring. First change your brush to a mounted cylinder felt buff.  This buff is designed specifically to polish the inside of the ring. You will need to apply additional grey star compound. This will remove any scratches or pits found in the inside of the ring.  Before moving to the next step is necessary to do a pre clean.  This requires the use of an ultrasonic mixed with Stuller's ultra CR cleaning solution.  The ring will need to be cleaned between one to two minutes. After dipping in the cleaning solution, rinse the ring by dipping in plain water and then wipe with a cloth.  Now that all of the deep scratches are out, you can now focus on shining the ring.

To begin a high polish, switch your brush to a round string buff, then apply the green rouge. Applying light pressure to the pedal, move the buff at a low speed around the side stones as not to damage anything.

It is now possible to achieve an even brighter polish.  By utilizing the same process as with the green rouge, adding an extra step with the red rouge will achieve an even brighter finish to the ring. The final step of the process is to rinse again in the ultrasonic, which removes the polishing compound off the ring. Finally, rinse with water, wipe with a cloth, and place in your showcase a product that's certain to attract attention and sell.