Spic and Span Polish

I would think he's using it as the final burnish rather than the actual polish but before I tried any kind of soap or cleaning agent I'd check the ingredients as some types of soaps and detergents etc. contain things that can damage your rubber barrels and seals....Mel

He calls himself; daRockman. I see him at all the Portland area events and he told me too, that he had to make a living doing rocks and he used SpicNspan Powder to polish with........... You liar, I thought! Most of his work that I saw were small Carnelian nodules and other natural pieces made into necklaces and there was nothing wrong with the polish.
Think he has something?
Steve

My relative who taught me much of my Lapidary skills always used the regular Tide Laundry Soap powder along with his tumbling polish. I can't recall his exact words, but it does have a compound in it which does help the polishing action, as well as helps with the clean-up once your polishing is done.

Wish he was still around to pick his brain, but he passed away about 5 years ago. The old timers are always great to obtain information! I kick myself in the rear for not spending more time with him!

He always had a tumbler I could have used! It was a 600lb commercial tumbler. Ahhh the pieces I could roll with that!

Yep, isn't it amazing how we get these insights when we get a little older
Fran

Mel is making a good point. Oxalic acid will remove rust (hematite) stains and may discolor stones containing this colorant. And, the unbuffered acid could damage the surface (etch) carbonates like rhodochrosite, calcite, and malachite. I would test soak a bit of the material (a polished piece) in any agent I was going to use if I wasn't sure of the safety before I ruined a whole load. And, none of these agents mentioned will polish. Polishing is a grinding action and burnishing is a means of smoothing a surface by flattgening a surface without removing significant amounts of material. Burnishing agents are wetting agents and most cleaners are just that. Borax, quaternary ammo0nium compounds like Fantastic, dish detergent, bar soap, soap powder, borax- all do the same thing by making the surface tension of water less. and allowing more intimate contact between the stones being burnished I've read a little about the burninshing process and it's real voodoo- meltign at the water-stomne interface, and other bizarre rtheories. But, it works. .I would watch out for stuff like orange oil, by the way. It isn't a wetting agent, but a solvent like acetone or MEK or formaldehyde, without the fume hazards. It will make a stick mess out of some plastics and rubber materials. Interestingly, if you read the label on some quaternary ammonium cleanerts like Fantastic or 409, they warrn you about etching glass and advise against using the cleaners on glass. Glass certainly will etch in the dishwasker, where you use hot lye solution and chlorinated compounds for cleaning (alkalis like lye -soodium hydroxide-convert fatty acids to soaps). I wonder if some of these lye containing cleaners likeTop Job and Mr. CLean would damage stones.

Mark H.

Mark H.

I tried the Spic & Span powder for a week. My used plastic pellet filler came out as clean as new. The rocks were mixed. Some of the agate and jasper wasn't bad. Going to put in polish for a week. It might work on a vibe but not my rotary tumbler.