Relume - vintage watch hand restoration. Luminous paint application. 

Sir, the way you teach/explain the whole process is awesome. You really doing an appreciable work. And one query Sir, what we call this lume powder, is it strontium aluminate ?

Thank you for radim aplly watch hands

Thanks Kalle. Mix it with a drop of coffee to get a aged color of the paint.😁

Haha you found the picture 😉👌👍🇩🇰

Like Random Restoration, I remove/clean old hand lume in a sealed jar inside my ultrasonic bath. In my experience, it does a perfect job - no scraping required at all!! And, the radium is contained in the jar. I use tap water and a few drops of dish soap.

I felt as I watched how carefully the knowledge and experience was tried to be conveyed. I have a question about removing micro scratches that are not mentioned here. How effective would it be to polish hands with 10k or 30k diamond powder paste? Could it be peeling off because the coating is so thin? Because the nickel plating of the movement was removed when I used silver polishing paste. Of course, I later learned that the reason for this was a chemical used in the paste.

Another great video. I will try the underneath method from now. Thanks.

Great video as always

Thank you very much for all this educational content. I wish you every happiness and peace of mind.

Thanks Kalle, good advice!

Thank you Kalle!

Fantastic video and what a wealth of information. I am looking to refinish my Omega Flightmaster orange color dials. Do you recommend a certain paint manufacturer/color?

Where can I purchase the leather files? I leave in the U.S. I love you channel and have learned so much. Thank You!

Love the balance tack and the pithwood to hold the hands ! Thank you Kalle

Thank you for the time and great content 👍👍

Just so simple :D missed it again :D Not Watch but Wash.

Thanks again Kalle

Great Video Kalle. Learned a lot !!

Fill from bottom that is good advice I clean my hands submerged to keep the bad old stuff for contaminating my work space safest and easiest is to replace the hands for me! A great video😃👍

Cool, thank you for this useful and helpful tutorial

Hi Kalle, been watching your videos for a few days for informations regarding vintage watch restoration. I bought a vintage 1981 watch and was wondering if it is possible to relume Tritium filled stick indexes directly applied on the dial? Cheers

Consider scraping radium with the hand submerged in a liquid (like IPA), then there is no dust.

very helpful thanks

Thanks for the video - best wishes for the Holidays.

Thank you for sharing 👏🏻

Greetings from Scotland, late because of the cup final but interested in this topic. I think that my vintage watches have had radium removed

Good video, I'm doing this now on a pair of Cartier sword hands with luminova. I prefer a stacking block instead of the pit wood, when working with hands because the support is better in case I'm polishing the top surface. You just need to find the right hole for the hand post to fit not too loose and not tight either. Also I prefer submerge them into nytroacrylic thinner (or acetone) to dissolve the old luminous paste: scraping them is always very risky: a bit of pressure and you bend them...

Great content, as always. Thanks Kalle!

When in doubt whether the dial and hands contain radium, a Geiger counter will give an absolute result. Most Geiger counters don't react to alpha particles, not as a limitation of the Geiger-Müller tube, but the case of most Geiger counters block the alpha particles. An alpha particle reaction will produce beta particles as well, any raised numbers on hands or dials on the Geiger counter gives away the presence of radioactive luminescence.

Good info, thanks!

Thank you Kalle, I've learnt something new from you yet again as I was taught to lume with the hands face down, occasionally it'd flowover and look kind of 'fat' and need redoing, seeing you do it from underneath it makes total sense and gravity will obviously stop it overflowing!........Thank you again, you're a star. I clean the hands using IPA in a jar in the ultrasonic, it removes most everything from the hands including old lume , grub, grease, dirt, rust (sometimes) and of course i can dispose of the IPA responsibly should it have radium in the hands, then it's a quick polish, re-lume and it's job done.

Thanks Kalle- I had not tried the underneath method I have two sets that need relumed today- I will give it a try today! Also, I have much difficulty with the proper 1/1 proportions and a single 'drop' of lacquer poured out of the bottle like you demonstrate...

Ačiū!

Clean printer paper works treating for polishing as well.

Dear sir , i am in Greece and I am interesting to repaint my citizen aqualung ‘s watch hands by you .Is it possible to send them asap?

Thank you very much for your in depth explanation, Kalle. I have a dial and hands from an old German pocket watch that I will be re-luming at some stage. I've been wondering about removing the lume (probably Radium) under water, in a dish, to eliminate any risk of dust. How best to dispose of it afterwards? Flush it down the toilet; cover the dust with varnish and put in the bin? Keep up the good work. Really enjoy your videos. Have a good Christmas. Cheers from Australia

My 1990 Rolex Dj 36 16233 no longer luminous since less than 2 weeks ago. Is there a way to restore it without replacing its original Tritium dial, hour & minute hand each then? Thanks

Great video as usual!! Just a question, is it OK to use IPA for lumed hands? will IPA affect the lume? Thanks Kalle, and keep 'em coming!

In my experience, it's best to use the minimum amount of binder (varnish as Kalle calls it) to achieve smooth results. Otherwise, the hands won't glow as brightly as possible because the lume particles aren't as tightly grouped - they're not as dense as they can be. But, if there isn't enough binder, the results will be lumpy. So, in my experience, it's difficult to get just the right amount of binder in the pigment.

Thanks Kalle! If they are filled in black, what material would that filling be?

Whats the hardner you are using?

any reason not to put the watch hand upside down on the holder and put the paste in that way?

man that looked so easy but if someone tries it by himself oh god watching is damn pretty easier than doing it by yourself🤣

:)

I thought watches had ‘fingers’ and clocks had ‘hands’.

Thank you Kalle!