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Post by rocklicker on Aug 30, 2006 3:05:29 GMT -5
Does anyone know a good trick for getting a really good polish on Tourmaline? I've got a rubilite piece I'm going to cab and I polished a face just to practice. Even with 14K then 50K diamond paste it still didn't come out right. It got a shine, but a little dull. I am wary of cerium due to it getting into the tiny cracks in the stone. Does someone have a trick for this stone?
Steve
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Post by rockds on Aug 30, 2006 10:00:27 GMT -5
Have you trieed zam? Don't know if it will work for tourmaline but seems to work well for other stuff.
robert
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stefan
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,113
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Post by stefan on Aug 30, 2006 11:51:54 GMT -5
TOurmaline (being so Hard at 7 to 7.5) And being Striated- and Piezoelectric is very hard to get to polish- Now my first guess would be that you missed something in the earlier stages (scratches) But I have seen your work- so that is not a possibility- perhaps there are internal striations (or inclusions?) that are messing up the appearance- the other thing is possibly the electrical properties of the crystal are drawing fine dust to the suface there by clouding up the stone appearence?
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181lizard
Cave Dweller
Still lurking :)
Member since December 2005
Posts: 2,171
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Post by 181lizard on Aug 30, 2006 12:29:04 GMT -5
Steve...can't give you techno. info...but it's very possible to get it to shine. Tourmalines are just about my fav gemstone and the pink is the bestest. Lots of jewelry made with pink and lots of it is cabbed and carved. I read somewhere that the pink is more often than not cabbed because clean gemstones of it are a little harder to come by.
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