Buffing/polishing scuffed plastic pieces

For a change of scenery recently purchased these "Traditional Staunton"  pieces from Wholesale Chess in red and ivory and have been quite enjoying them.  As expected some of the red pieces have scuff marks  (they warn customers about this, something about the manufacturing process for the red and blue pieces) the marks are pretty faint and not such a big deal as the set is useable fresh out of the box.  However, as do dig the pieces and will be looking to include them in the lineup for online/league play and study sessions am hoping there may be a gentle/non abrasive way to buff out the marks and polish them up a bit.  Any suggestions?

I HATE that set. It's made in China and the king looks huge on the uscf tournament boards. They copied the house of Staunton Marshall. And they added blue and red so it can appeal to children. 

A plastic copy of a plastic copy. Shameful!

I don't know these pieces, but I can help with the process of removing scratches from plastic.

Is the colour in the plastic or is it a coating?  If its a coating, then polishing or buffing out the scratches may make the problem worse.  

Removing scratches and polishing are both abrasive processes, you can't get away from that.  You need to match the abrasive to the problem.  If the colour is part of the plastic and the scratch is quite shallow then things like fine wet and dry paper (for deep scratches), toothpaste, brass polish or silver polish (in order from most abrasive to least abrasive, and not meaning so called chemical polishes) will work.  The point is to use something that smoothes the scratch out, and then follow up with progressively finer abrasives.  Starting too fine is a waste of time and may not work anyway.  A problem that you can run into is that you end up with a finish that is more shiny than the piece originally had.  Matte or satin finishes are hard to match and you can end up having to polish everything to get a consistent finish.  

The more use this set gets the more it grows on me, the dark red pieces are exactly what I was looking for (candy apple red pieces I've seen around were not that appealing to me) and the only reason to bring another plastic set home - already have two inexpensive but hearty and handsome plastic sets for club n cafe play where rapid games and or greasy sandwich hands are likely to be on tap.  Which brings up a point not mentioned in the op, while the pieces are weighted, well proportioned and have a nice playable feel they are not nearly as heavy as the other two nor do they feel as solid, in fact, I'll probably not play blitz with them, not to say they couldn't hold up to such but the round crown a top the bishops doesn't look super solid to me and to answer your question Greghunt, the red does appear to be in the plastic but as a layer  of red plastic over a black plastic core underneath.   Of the complaints about the scuff marks in the reviews on the site (which am glad I winked at) there was at least one who said she was able to buff them out, so am hopeful.  As theres  a good chance will spend many hours of chess with these pieces, don't mind spending a couple tuning them up.  With this color red making them a little shinier would only enhance the pieces probably and they are not quite as shiny as the white pieces anyway I don't think. =) 

While the king, queen, rook and pawns do look similar to HOS Marshall plastic pieces I much prefer the bishops and knights that come with these  pieces (that Marshall doesn't come in red anyway) in fact these are by far the most aesthetically pleasing red plastic was able to discover online.

Thanks for all suggestions and comments!

I like Renaissance Wax myself. But if it is coated and not the same color all the way through that might be a problem.

Oh, Hello Mr. kid_may_know,

I see you've had problems and been rude and disrespectful to other users of the site.

While I certainly did not contribute to the gentleman's petition, (and neither did you)  I neither attacked or disrespected him. I just don't like the set. Has my post offended you ? Because you own the same set perhaps.

I don't own the same set.

And denouncing chess set of another person by saying "plastic copy of plastic copy", "shameful" is definitely an offensive behavior.

Didn't your elementary school teacher tell you?

You are a grown-up, but still act like a 7-year old girl.

Do you want some candy?

Thanks Ronbo710 and cgrau, Renaissance Wax sounds interesting (might be good for freshening up my old rosewood Classic Staunton pieces as well) haven't decided yet on treatment for these pieces but will definitely do some kind of mild polishing at least on the extra queen and see how that goes.  

Couple more shots of set for anyone who might be interested in these, and thanks again for all the suggestions, people with similar questions will likely be linked here for years to come,  have  been directed to these forums about a gazillion times doing chess related searches. =)

If find something can work the whole set with will post more detailed before and after photos.

No, thank you. Keep your kimchi infested candy to yourself.

Wow, he is a racist..

He finally revealed his evil nature!

Booooooooo

I am an evil natured ghost and I am coming to haunt you... Boooooooooo

I live inside your chess pieces and I make you lose everyday... BOOOOOOOOOOO

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

BOOOOOO.

BOO!

Here is how an old Player's Choice cleaned up with Renaissance Wax. I use it on my wood sets, too. It has a little abrasive in it, but it's used as preservation wax by museums. It's great stuff.

Chuck, 

those look great! thx for the tip😇

Didn't think to do this as the scuffs seemed so light and superficial, will diffidently take a closer look to see exactly what we have.

cgrau wrote:

Thanks for showing us the results of the restoration cgrau, lovely!  Am afraid may end up giving all sets  in the house the Renaissance treatment, looks great stuff indeed.  

You're very welcome! I'm grateful to those who passed it on to me!

You're quite welcome, Key!