jdupras
off to a rocking start
Member since January 2012
Posts: 1
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Post by jdupras on Jan 1, 2012 14:02:17 GMT -5
Help! Just finished my first tumble. I finished the polish and they were quite shiny. I then put them back in with Ivory soap shavings for four days. Now many of them have lost their polish and seem almost dried out. Is it because I used soap shavings and not laundry soap? And, can this be fixed by putting them back into the tumbler with polish?
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Post by susand24224 on Jan 1, 2012 15:53:12 GMT -5
Hmmmm. I still have not mastered the fine art of burnishing. I used to use Borax, until it destroyed the finish on some fluorite, then I switched to Ivory Snow shavings. Most of the time they work for me. Recently, I had a batch of Mohs 5- 5 1/2 where it did not work--it was almost like a gummy surface fused onto the rocks. I went back to 1000 to get rid of it.
I am not certain of the entire cause of the occasional problem, but the following seems to affect my outcome: temperature (Ivory Soap seems to "blob" if the temperature is below 48 degrees or so). Amount: it does not take much Ivory Soap to be too much. Borax there was more room for error. Perhaps you used too much? Perhaps hardness: the only problems I have had with either Ivory or Borax were with softer rocks, but I have not had enough serious problems to be sure of this.
I also live in a house with a salt-based water softener. I think this significantly interfered with removal of Borax, not so much so with the Ivory. This makes sense--Ivory is designed to come off the skin with considerably less rinsing than that involved in laundry. As an aside, Dreft did not work at all for me--couldn't get the residue off without major effort.
The only conclusions I can draw is that usually both of them work fine, but there are variables that affect them that I haven't quite nailed down yet. I would however, use minimal amounts of any of them. If your rocks are Mohs 7, I would bet that there were a few too many Ivory Soap shavings in the mix.
Susan
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,456
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Post by Sabre52 on Jan 1, 2012 16:16:59 GMT -5
Dreft baby soap works great and there's no plant toxicity issue as with borax....Mel
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Jan 1, 2012 16:20:42 GMT -5
I seldom burnish,but I never run the burnish over 24 hours when I do.4 days seems too long to me.
snuffy
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quartz
Cave Dweller
breakin' rocks in the hot sun
Member since February 2010
Posts: 3,341
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Post by quartz on Jan 1, 2012 21:27:52 GMT -5
One thing that seems to affect the soap burnish process is water quality. Youngest lives in Vancouver, Wash., couldn't get a good shine for anything. He ran a batch with distilled water and it worked great. He said his freshly found rocks didn't even wash up well in the tap water.
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catskillrocks
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2008
Posts: 1,270
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Post by catskillrocks on Jan 2, 2012 20:44:32 GMT -5
well, jdupras, as you can see, each person finds what works for them. I would say first off, that 4 days is FAR too long a time; I would think that 4 hours is a more realistic time frame. Oh, and for me, I use Ivory Snow for a burnish, when I do. This isn't Ivory Bar Soap shavings; it is actually a powder.
And as already mentioned, Borax will kill any vegetation if you pour it out where things grow.
Don
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