About to take some ‘golden sand’ nail varnish to my gouged Kashima stanchions. I know a few on here have done it before so any advice?

let us know how you get on.
I’m getting some 800grit wet n dry to sand mine down next
I put a few layers of nail varnish on, but let each layer dry properly before applying the next

Sounds like a lot of effort – why bother doing it. If you service the lowers every 4-6 mths you cant lose that much oil can you ?

The service takes about 10 mins. If your seals are fine you don’t even need to replace them, just top up the oil.

How big is the scratch that it needs filling with nail varnish ?

Mine have a few and although I’ve sanded out any burrs they are quite deep.

To be honest usually I’d leave it but I’ve broken my collarbone so I can’t ride and I’m bored! Plus on Kashima the scratches are very obvious

Layers? I’m struggling to not overfill with one layer

Yes!!! I managed to scratch every single set of stantions I own! 🙄

I have had some pretty deep scratches! Swarf coming off and able to cut your finger on it! With these deep scratches, they fill with dirt then get wiped off under the seal leaving the dirt in the lowers. You can keep an eye on it, if your seal is sweating around where your scratch is then you definitely need to sort it.

Here is how I do it:

I use gold nail varnish, find one with small or no gold flecks and some 1200-1500 wet n dry, using it wet.

1. Use back of spoon to flatten any sharp edges
2. Use IPA to clean the scratch
3. Use Masking tape to mask the area, the less nail varnish you use the less
you have to sand off
4. Use nail varnish, thin layers, allow to set between, ya’know, exactly how
you do your nails at the weekend. 😉
5. Leave for 24 hours to harden.
6. Lay your forks horizontal, grab a cup of water and a sponge, or put forks
under the tap.
7. Use wet n dry, wet, continually wetting the area, rub the nail varnish.
The more water the better.
8. Remove masking tape once you start sanding the paper
9. Wet n Dry again until smooth, again using as much water as possible.
The Kashima coating is pretty hard, if you follow this you shouldn’t even
dull the coating, let alone remove it.

I have now done this on 3 sets of my forks. When choosing a nail varnish, pick one that doesn’t have gold flecks in it, or has very tiny gold flecks. I have found the nail varnish seems to last about 4-5 years before you can start feeling the groove again.

I have been very tempted to try Araldite as I don’t think it will break down as quickly…?

I managed to find a photo of the first set I ever did. The colour is nothing like the colour of the forks, but it worked.

Cheers Milkie! The polish I bought has a tiny brush so got away without masking. Good to know you can sand the Kashima a bit, that was my main worry!

I’ve used black nail varnish to repair a scratch on Pike stanchion but the best repair I ever did was to a deep scratch I picked up on Snowdon Ranger using araldite, was easy to fill-but-not-too – fill-but and smoothed down to a lovely finish. On a non – kashima fork though

I’ve used superglue and wet and dry previously

Milkie is correct.
The key is very fine wet and dry and good quality nail varnish – Thin layers – dry for 24 hours – Wet and dry smooth. Repeat until you can feel no mark. Letting the nail varnish fully harden and only adding thin layers is key.

Done several forks like this with no problems, but it takes about 5 days of 10min effort. Tried Araldite and it did not work well.

The clear top coat nail varnish seemed best when I did it, sets solid 8)

Sanding was fairly simple in the end, it comes off well enough and you’re right, Kashima is very hard!

Can’t feel the scratches with my fingers, but can just about with my nails, so I’m going to repeat the process just to get it perfect

Can tell the difference in friction between the varnish and Kashima though, not much I can do there I suppose