How to Polish Seaglass to Remove Salt

4 different pieces of seaglass before polishing

Emerald green seaglass before polishing

4 seaglass pieces after polishing

Emerald green seaglass after polishing

When I first began working with seaglass, I must have tossed back dozens of great pieces that I thought were unusable because they were too heavily coated in salt from spending so many years tumbling around in the Atlantic Ocean. My parents and I tried everything we could think of to remove it: household cleaners, vinegar, lime juice, even soda pop (for some reason we thought maybe the bubbles would help – what can I say? We were desperate). One evening while having our after-dinner tea, my mom picked up a particularly nice piece of blue seaglass, and was rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger while remarking that there must be something we hadn’t tried yet that would work. When she looked back down at the piece in her hand, lo and behold, some of the salt had come off! Yay! We realized that if the natural oils in the skin would take off some of the salt, what would happen if we used something like say, cooking oil or baby oil? So mom broke out the Canola, and we gave it a shot. We learned very quickly that you only need a very small amount, and the great thing is, most of the glass is porous enough that it will quickly absorb the oil, so as long as you don’t use too much, it will not come off on clothing! Mom and I both tested that out 🙂 Also, it won’t take away that beautiful frosted effect that is one of the key characteristics of seaglass.
Here’s what you need:
1 J-cloth, cut into 2 pieces, one large, one small, folded in half
Vegetable or baby oil
Add a VERY SMALL amount of oil to the small piece of J-cloth (paper towels will work as well if you’re only polishing one or two pieces, but will start falling apart fairly easily after that), I usually do it by removing the cap, placing the cloth over the mouth of the bottle and tipping the bottle up and back down super-quick.
Rub this all over the seaglass until all the salt is removed (which is really quick, especially with the first few pieces)
Dry off with the larger piece of J-cloth, and let it sit for about 10 minutes, or until all the oil has been absorbed.
VOILA! Beautiful salt free seaglass, easy peasy!