Polishing a sandblasted case

[Bogmanfan]

Hey guys. I'm selling my Breitling at the moment, which was sandblasted by the previous owner. He did a great job, and it's what attracted me to the watch in the first place. However, I have a buyer who wants it restored to the original polished finish. Can this be done by a professional?
Pics of the watch are here: http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...-Raven-Reduced

[bmwrover]

To revert from bead blast to mirror would remove too much material, as the "scares" are too deep.
I think it looks very nice blasted.

[igorRIJEKA]

If it was brushed,than it would be easy job....but sandblasted ....well....not so easy.

....especially case back....

[Bogmanfan]

Cheers guys, that's what I figured. Especially with the caseback! I think it's much nicer as is, but buyer prefers the Breit-bling look. I'll pass on the info.

[walkerwek1958]

To revert from bead blast to mirror would remove too much material, as the "scares" are too deep.
I think it looks very nice blasted.

How much metal would be removed? I`m asking because I don`t know the answer; I do a lot of refinishing work and I`m intrigued by your reply. Is this statement based on fact or heresay?

I`ve taken some fairly deep damage out of watch cases and you wouldn`t know they'd had anything done. I`m tempted to offer to do this job but you've put me off a little. How deep (microns) does the bead-blasting penetrate?

Paul

[bubi]

should have sold it as a special limited edition "top gun" and charged 300 pounds more

[bmwrover]

Paul, I will ask our blaster and polisher at work and come up with some micron figures of various surfaces on stainless steel.

[walkerwek1958]

My concern on this is whether the beadblasting leaves some sort of deeper effect that would show up after the surface had been taken off.

The other bigger problem is getting into all the little crevices to reapply the brushed finish (between lugs etc). It isn`t as simple as people think to change the finish on something and then change back.

I find modifications such as this a bit annoying; I`m a great believer in leaving things as the manufacturer intended. I refuse to alter finishes; I get asked to put a brushed finish on in place of polished and I won`t do it, because I know at some point that someone will want to swap it back.

I think the OP may be better selling it as it is, or keeping it. It'll appeal to someone, albeit at a reduced price maybe.

Paul

[glazba]

My concern on this is whether the beadblasting leaves some sort of deeper effect that would show up after the surface had been taken off.

I think the OP may be better selling it as it is, or keeping it. It'll appeal to someone, albeit at a reduced price maybe.

Paul

The metal will be fine but it's often a real PIA of a job. That caseback looks a nightmare though! Assuming it's possible, the labour charge would surely be more than the resale value lost by such a modification.

[marcus fenix]

Somebody knows the answer. Because one of the original Dreadnoughts was supplied blasted, polished up like a Breitling by one owner, and then reverted to blasted again by another!

http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...ed-Dreadnought

BTW, I chuckled when I read that often stated sentiment in the second sentence in this post:

http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...ll=1#post11868

[Paul J]

To revert from bead blast to mirror would remove too much material, as the "scares" are too deep.
I think it looks very nice blasted.

x2 It looks very purposeful. I'd find a new buyer. The blast profile of the current finish looks around 80-100um, to get it back to a polished finish would remove all of the 'peaks' on the profile, down to the bottom of the 'troughs', and leave the remaining assembly slack and ill-fitting.

[Paul J]

should have sold it as a special limited edition "top gun" and charged 300 pounds more

Lmao - Genius!