Post by docharber on Dec 14, 2008 13:29:28 GMT -5
Greetings to all!
i hae discovered a neat way to remove minor impergections in rough ground stones and whay I can't seem to get a decenty polish on obsidian in my vibe.
I have a set of cheap plastic backed, expanded metal diamond impregnated knife hones I bought at a mill outlet import junk tool store. They are also available from Harbor Freight, I think.
I found that the coarse hone is great for removing small rough or sharp corners from rough ground stones before continuing the processing. At under $5.00 the set, these were really cheap hones that even do OK with blades. Used wet, they develop a slurry fast.
I have had trouble getting snowflake and mahogany obsidian to polish in either my vibe or rotary tumblers, and I've used both cerium oxide and Lusterite, heed ing the advice of others that ceruium oxide may be better for softer stones. The last load of agate I polished with the Lusterite (alumina based), I left a piece of mahogany obsidian in the load by mistake. It came out with a passable shine. The importabnt difference, I think, is that I didn't use pellets in that load. I'll repolish the load of obsidian with (lead-free) glass drops as filler (llike penta jewels) and see what happens.
Have a Merry one!
mark H.
i hae discovered a neat way to remove minor impergections in rough ground stones and whay I can't seem to get a decenty polish on obsidian in my vibe.
I have a set of cheap plastic backed, expanded metal diamond impregnated knife hones I bought at a mill outlet import junk tool store. They are also available from Harbor Freight, I think.
I found that the coarse hone is great for removing small rough or sharp corners from rough ground stones before continuing the processing. At under $5.00 the set, these were really cheap hones that even do OK with blades. Used wet, they develop a slurry fast.
I have had trouble getting snowflake and mahogany obsidian to polish in either my vibe or rotary tumblers, and I've used both cerium oxide and Lusterite, heed ing the advice of others that ceruium oxide may be better for softer stones. The last load of agate I polished with the Lusterite (alumina based), I left a piece of mahogany obsidian in the load by mistake. It came out with a passable shine. The importabnt difference, I think, is that I didn't use pellets in that load. I'll repolish the load of obsidian with (lead-free) glass drops as filler (llike penta jewels) and see what happens.
Have a Merry one!
mark H.
