rocky323
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2008
Posts: 18
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Post by rocky323 on Jun 6, 2008 22:46:17 GMT -5
It has been many year since I last did a batch...but never shells
I am doing Abalone have cut all pieces with a small diamond saw
My first step was using 400 grit and this did a nice job all edges
were nicely rounded. It took 2 days. Have them now running
with cerium oxide after one day they do not look polished so will let it go another day. Is there a better polish?
am using a rotory tumbler 12 lb size
all the best kurt
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Post by Noosh9057 on Jun 7, 2008 7:54:06 GMT -5
Well I cant help you on this but cant wait to see them polish. Are you going to post a pic?
Roger
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Post by connrock on Jun 8, 2008 4:41:51 GMT -5
Kurt,
I suspect that you may have jumped from the 400 to the polish without going through a finer grit or even 2 more stages of finer grits.
Even though shells are soft I would try a 400,600,1000 then polish???
connrock
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lparker
fully equipped rock polisher
Still doing too much for being retired!
Member since March 2008
Posts: 1,202
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Post by lparker on Jun 8, 2008 5:59:32 GMT -5
The only one I did was done on a flat lap (whole shell) I started at 220 then 600 and finished at 1200 - using diamond laps..came out beautiful - just the way I wanted.
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Post by parfive on Jun 8, 2008 22:28:01 GMT -5
No experience with shells, Kurt, but walnut shell/corn cob dry polish might be worth a try.
Rich
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Post by larrywyland3 on Jun 9, 2008 6:00:22 GMT -5
I do cohog shells aka wampum. The cohog is real hard; almost jasper like. The 60/90 really works them down fast, so I usually do them in the 500 for about 4 or 5 days. Then the AO for a week. The AO is at 50,000 thousand so I am not to worried that work them down. Cohog is probably on of the hardest thickes shells. So I think your wise to be checking the tumbler regularly. Let us know how long you keep them in polish. If I had 1000 grit I might try going 500,1000 then polish. I'll have to keep that in mind when I buy more grits.
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rocky323
off to a rocking start
Member since April 2008
Posts: 18
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Post by rocky323 on Jun 11, 2008 1:03:46 GMT -5
Wow that brings back memories...The cohog was what started me on the road to being Rocky
I was at the cape where most of the jewelry is made with cohog. There was or still is a restaurant in the Post road in Guilford that had a pile at least 20 feet high of the cohog. He let
me pick all that I wanted. I loved the cohog. That was back in 1963.
At thast time we put that purple piece on a dop stick and made that pretty stone for a
piece of jewelry. When you find the clam shell here in California they are white.
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