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Post by puppie96 on Mar 15, 2004 0:11:43 GMT -5
Hi again everybody. For months now I have been working on batches of sapphires and rubies. An exercise in frustration, as many of you have also experienced. I've read all the threads on this board and have participated in some, but I still have the same old problem of not being able to get them to polish. Along the way, pretty (though small) pieces of totally transparent, glassy shiny gem material have appeared in the tumbles. They seem to automatically polish. Everything else stays matte at best, even if iridescent. Some have suggested that diamond is the only answer, but after spending literally endless hours on the internet looking up everything I can find, I have still not found any advice or instruction about using diamond in a tumbler. I have looked at diamond products and see that besides the powder, sold by the carat, there are also spray, tubes of stuff, etc. diamond products. Has anybody tried this? Or, for those experienced folks here, if you were going to try it, what would you do or what product would you use? Thank you anybody who might know something!
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Post by docone31 on Mar 16, 2004 10:02:31 GMT -5
Diamonds are forever. I would be reluctant to put diamond powder into a bbl. It would be the beginning of the never ending story. Keep polishing the gemstones. I take the rubies and saphires and put them into new batches as dunnage and that helps. They take time.
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Mar 16, 2004 11:13:10 GMT -5
Good point doc. I could play hell getting any diamond out of the barrel if it became embedded and it would never wear out! Scrap that idea.
I have recently been advised by two sources to use tin oxide on the rubies. I don't know, this goes a little contrary to my past experience. Who knows, maybe instead of carrying around a pocket full of polished rubies, I'll be carrying around a pocket full of rubies letting them polish themselves.
Ron
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Post by puppie96 on Mar 16, 2004 21:47:33 GMT -5
Forget those stupid rubies! I just got a load of agate out of the polish and it is so beautiful that I am temporarily restored to sanity.
And the barrels, they go round and round......
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Banjocreek
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since March 2003
Posts: 1,115
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Post by Banjocreek on Mar 16, 2004 22:17:21 GMT -5
Hey Ron- Drop a quarter cup of tin oxide in your pocket and let us know how it goes! ;D
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