Question:
When gemstones have been scratched, is there a safe way to try clean them up, maybe buffing or I even have wondered about a tumbler, but think that may be too harsh? Thank you.

Answer:
If you have a stone that gets scratched after you bought it, it is probably a fairly soft stone. This is good if you want to try to polish it. The best way to polish it without machinery, would be with a piece of leather attached to a flat stick. To facilitate polishing the stone you could use toothpaste or better yet some polishing compound from you local lapidary supply store. Depending on the hardness of the stone it will take elbow grease, friction, and a little time, but it can be done.

If the stone was scratched when you bought it, it may be a hard stone that was not polished very well. In this case you may need a buffer to polish it.

For touching up scratches I would not recomend a tumbler. They can take time to use and the whole stone will be polished down where you may only need one spot polished. Tumblers will tend to round off sharply faceted corners. A hand polish will always be better than a tumble polish.

Stones like lapis, opal, and unstablized turquoise can even be polished by rubbing them on your jeans. Quartz or agate is harder and will take more time to polish.

Ideally a buffing wheel with a polishing compound works the best to take out scratches.