I want to polish a palladium wedding band, its past just cleaning, with quite a few visible marks. Palladium is quite hard, so i figure a soft cloth and some kind of polish should get me some results. Is Autosol or Brasso going to be any good, or do i need to buy something more specific? Anybody got any experience?

I’m not experienced in this but I’d start with jewellers rouge

If it just needs a buff I’d use a silver cleaning cloth. If it’s “past cleaning” and it’s a wedding ring, I’d take it to a jeweller.

Palladium?

Thats a Moh’s hardness of 4.75, only slightly harder than steel or iron at 4.

My wedding band is tungsten carbide at 9, I’ve been putting it off for years now but it seems I just need diamond cutting compound and a session with the dremel. Yours can’t be any worse than that (but probably not going to thank indiscriminate dremel polishing).

I thought palladium was relatively soft, it’s what mine is made of as needed something that could be cut easily if I forgot to take it off at work.

Can’t say about polishing to a shine though as mine was designed with a matte finish so just needs a Brillo pad to get back to that.

Any method suitable for platinum will work. They’re the same hardness and are often mixed in jewellery.

I find just in normal wear mine gets a nice scruffy but still shinyish look. I think the scratches give it character.

I’ll just give it a go, see what happens! I’ve made and polished a few titanium / stainless / inconel rings before now, but they are materials i’ve got experince with.

We will of course need Before and After photos.

(doubly so if you bollocks it up😁)

Is it solid Palladium, or plated? Certain metals are Rhodium plated, but it can and will wear off, showing the original metal underneath.

I’ll ask my mate later tonight when we go for beers, he’s a goldsmith of nearly forty years experience, so he ought to have a clue.

TBH, why bother. I’ve got a gold wedding ring that was my great-granddad’s, it’s dated 1916 inside, and it’s a lovely rose gold, and I’ve got a titanium ring and three silver rings, all are bashed around, but that’s what happens when you wear rings and never take them off. It’s patina, it’s part of their life and charm and character, polishing will only delay the inevitable, which is more dings and scratches, so what’s the point?

why bother,,,,,,,, It’s my wife’s, she had to get work done on her engagement ring as it was losing the diamond, now the 2 no longer match. Yes, i know they won’t look new forever, but if it’s something i can do myslef, i like to do it.

No useful advice, but just wondering when wedding rings became wedding ‘bands’?  I’ve never heard that term before.

It’s a wedding band when she takes it off to screw the drummer (not my story).

Right, just got in from the pub, and this is what my mate recommended; Duraglit, silver specific version. Brasso is a bit too harsh, but Duraglit has just the right level of abrasive effect. Apparently, Palladium has shot up in value, because platinum had become too expensive due to its use in catalytic converters, so now palladium has gone up in value due to the demand for catalytic converters.

T’was ever thus! So, there you go, advice from an expert in the field with nearly forty years experience.

@countzero Brilliant, thanks for that.

Just the drummer, i thought it had to be the whole ensemble?

I was under the impression that a ring became a band when it has zero features on it and is completely plain.

I’m not at all certain, but I think ‘band’ is more often used than ‘ring’ in America.

Just did a search, and you’re pretty much right, this from H. Samuel;

You’ll hear some people use the term ‘wedding band’ while others say ‘wedding ring’, but there is actually no real difference between the two in the modern-day world of marriage.

If pushed to define the difference, a wedding ring is more likely to have diamonds in it, and a wedding band is more likely to be of a more simplistic design in plain metal such as gold, silver, platinum, or palladium.

Which Band Was Worn Traditionally?

Historically, it was the woman who received a family ring or precious stone in the form of an engagement ring, and the man who was given a wedding band.

However, over time, women also began to wear a wedding band along with their engagement ring. (More jewelry? Why not?!)  These bands then began to be designed with more care and cost, in a more feminine and perhaps stylish way – creating the more modern idea of the wedding ring.

This is why the contemporary wedding ring is more likely to include diamonds set all the way around it, or encompass decorative metal work.

So there ya go! 😎