No. Not in my opinion. But. If you want to rule this out go to a glass shop and buy a one by one foot mirrored plate. 1/4 inch thick high quality. Annealed glass. Do the test. Do a scratch patch. Hit ONLY one half of the patch with battery (sulfuric) acid. Maybe even tape off one half of the ‘patch’. Clear. Then check it out in a dark room with a flashlight. Use a soft blue huck or something similar like a real soft towel. Forget the white scrubby. No steel wool of any kind. If you want to know the truth this road will take you there.
It’s easyer to see scratches on mirrors due to the reflective properties of mirrors.
Mirror glass is not a soft glass either.
At least not the better quality ones
Pax
Sent from my toilet using Window Cleaning Resource
Derryll I love your questions. You get it. Totally! YES. Scratches can be completely invisible under certain lighting conditions. I remember one consulting job I did down in DC where the scratches were horrible. But could ONLY be seen in the direct sun on the second level. This is why I say when we do a restoration job we are recreating the glass surface. I call it precision surface engineering. Guys that use crude diatomaceous earth and the wrong technique, are begging for a lawsuit. The problem is that very few understand this.
Dangit, another rabbit: I had a friend who swore by DE powder. He sounded a little too much like a infomercial in praising it for hardwater so I didn’t bite. What’s the deal with DE?
Thanx for your commendation on the Wobble Wheel. DE is natural and hence not pure. DE cannot be finely tuned/controlled. There are two types of silica. The second is synthetic. It can be as much as 99.8% pure SiO2. I should write a VGD on this science. It really is fascinating.
James. Thanx for the compliment. I do love chemistry but have always been too lazy to focus. I am however starting a product development company. I call it Glass Smart Products. The first product is called Scrub and will be officially launched in a couple months. It is based on a synthetic silica. Not DE. Chris and Alex have been a tremendous help in getting me this far. They are true leaders.
Diamond magic also scratches. I had it scratch a pane the first time I used it, and no it was not from other debris. I thoroughly cleaned the glass and frame and used a clean brand new microfiber cloth to apply it. It depends on the glass. I would stay away from any abrasive that can be used by hand to remove stains because it is to abrasive, otherwise it would not work with just using it by hand. You need a very fine polishing compound to make sure it does not scratch. It will take longer but you won’t have to have that feeling in the pit of your stomach wondering if it is going to leave scratches when you get done. Dan fields sells a great polishing compound.
CC550 will remove any stain because it eats the glass away. It is actually removing the top layer of glass on a micro level. The risk with it is the health risk and if you will get tin etch haze (which can be eliminated using a blue light to detect the tin side before applying it).
Excellent. DM is based mostly on a silica. Probably a DE. And yes. Any liquid that is based on an etchant will react with glass. Especially hydrofluoric. It will react with glass every time. And can even cause a clear orange peal effect that is more easily seen from the inside looking out at distant objects. It is likely Dan Fields does have a quality synthetic silica. I haven’t tested it. But here is one more interesting bit. Which is the reason why I developed the Wobble. Even an optical grade cerium can leave zillions of extremely fine scratches when used with a rotary felt disk turned on edge. They look like streaks. Some guys will wet the felt, wet the glass, then touch the edge of the felt to a box of cerium, and go at the glass, ripping up and down left to right. You can work all day like this and not notice a thing. Until the sun comes out bright the very next day. The idea is to use an optical slurry with a felt pad totally flat on the glass at all times. Also do your first window in the direct sun if possible. Then look at it from every angle. Do a second story window if possible. Then check it with the sun low over the horizon. Like around 3.
Take a look at my video of the Wobble. Wobble Wheel Demo - YouTube This will be offered shortly as a kit. The wheel, a four ounce tub of pure cerium, a syringe for applying the compound to the felt rings, a few felt rings, also some slow release cerium thin felt rings. I am still working on it. This is primarily for stain removal. However the idea of using a wobble design might also work well for scratch removal too. I have already designed a two inch wobble for scratch removal. With some rock hard felt rings. Along with diamond compound of 60, 15, and 3 microns. Final finish is with a cerium slurry. It does work. But I am still working on it. Might be good for corners and french panes. Cuz the Glass Renu System is likely the best product out there right now for scratch removal. I would buy one tomorrow if I had the bux. Then I would mate it with the six inch wobble. That would eliminate any difficulty with distortion. Making the learning curve much easier.
i have a customer with glass deck rails on second floor and above that on the third floor is another deck with a stone floor. the mineral deposits were so thick you could not see through glass. my helper scraped for over 30 minutes with no real result. i researched and picked up “barkeepers friend” wiped it on, left a minute per instructions and washed it off. all deposits gone then did a normal wash.
another customer had a shower stall that he could not get the mineral deposits off and barkeepers friend took it off like nothing.
Thanks so much for this experience. We all can learn so much from it. Those of us who are married know our wives are much more inclined to believe the things we have done rather than what we say we will do. Regardless of how many times we actually do it. So I can say that barnacles can be kittens or bears depending on the chemistry. But without your experience my words hold little weight. Spots can be based on a calcium chemistry or a silicate chemistry. The first will come off with vinegar (acetic acid). Or Bar Keepers Friend which is based on oxalic acid and an abrasive. Oxalic acid is an organic acid. The second type of spot is based on the element silicon. Glass is also based on silicon. So the only acids that will react with silicate spots will also react with or etch the window surface. If the spots on your glass railing were based on silicates;… Barkeepers Friend wouldn’t have even touched them. You were fortunate. Just make absolutely sure that your customer knows that you are God incarnate.
