Polishing GG's

[CaptSteve]

Para what's the best way to protect the engravings. Please share your knowledge.
Thanks, really appreciate everyone's input here.

Never polish over the engravings; protect them and then polish. I can't say it strongly enough....learn about buffs, rouge, AND TECHNIQUES before polishing your GGTS. There are a lot of GGTS's out there that have been abused by enthusiastic owners. Please be careful.....

[CaptSteve]

Thanks ecosnige for your great info.

[martinc]

If it ever get tarnished again (great job btw) the polydent in ultrasonic cleaner (piece by piece,2 x 3 minutes cycles) then hot water rinse removes everything gunked,the use lusterlace strips...same result with all your finish thickness NOT removed

[CaptSteve]

Thanks martinc, the problem I had was however way beyond ultrasonic cleansing. The nickel was covered in some kind of haze (never seen this before) which was obviously from some attempt to clean/polish it using some chemical. This haze both took away the luster but also made the metal dull. I used everything under the sun in an attempt to remove it and polish the nickel plating with no success. Also there were numerous scuff marks in several places.
That's why I took the risk of going all out and polish with a buffing wheel.

[martinc]

That how the nickel Storms react to palms sweat and body oil

NO foul play involved by anyone,if I grab mine with bare hands,it will become just as you described over a certain period of time (might be minutes,might be hours of use)...this is when the lusterlace brings it back to original condition in a matter of minutes (if not seconds,its usually just the boootm tube that gets that tarnish).

Now I vape it with a microfiber cloth

[CaptSteve]

Thanks martin, the thing is this haze would not come off. If it was caused by the previous owners skin reaction surely when I polished it wouldn't it come off? I don't have the reaction issue myself so I don't know but from what I've heard it is easy to clean. This thing was like permanent.

[martinc]

Yeah,it just never been cleaned or hardly ever.

Its easy to remove when its fresh but after a while,a light polishing is required...enter my beloved lusterlace.

[CaptSteve]

That sucks big time, I would hate to have to deal with that all the time

[martinc]

Well,if you ever...

[rwechsler]

Glad to see this thread got started. Here are some links to polishing implements that I've had a lot of success with:
Simichrome - an excellent polishing paste. Abrasive enough to strip down all of the tarnish off of brass, and even the grooves out of a telescope with a firm buffing wheel. Be careful when using it around engravings, it WILL damage them
Amazon.com: Simichrome Polish 50 Gram/1.76 oz: Everything Else

A high quality multi-gradient untreated (no polishes, be it oils, pastes, or powders) gold/silver jewelery polishing cloth.
Amazon.com: Jewelry Polishing Cloths by Hagerty [Jewelry]: Jewelry

SS buffing kit that comes with several different mops, wheels, and buffing compounds. Also includes a liquid polish. I don't personally own this kit, but it comes highly reccomended by ecosnige, who in my experience, is the buffing MASTER. I'll re-post some pics of the restoration job he did on a nickel GGTS if he's ok with that (or he can post em).
Stainless Steel Polishing Kit - Electric Drill Kits - Buffing Kits - Buffing/Polishing - Caswell Inc

Cape Cod Polishing Cloth - much less abrasive than simichrome, but excellent for on the go touchups. The oil they're treated with leaves a pleasant, yet faint, vanilla after-smell, which sounds unimportant, but makes polishing MUCH safer and easier to do indoors compared to the simichrome.
Cape Cod Polish Metal Polishing Cloth Kit