jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Jan 29, 2019 6:34:55 GMT -5
My tile saw cuts soda lime glass 7 times faster than jade. Just timed it. That's expected. And no damage to your diamonds. Cuts clean. Mysteriously clean. Hard and solid. But does not polish easy ?
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Jan 29, 2019 21:25:15 GMT -5
That's expected. And no damage to your diamonds. Cuts clean. Mysteriously clean. Hard and solid. But does not polish easy ? In chemistry agate or it's man made equivalent is considered an "inorganic glass". Don't ask me to explain. But it's true. Jade isn't at all "glassy". It's crystals in long felted fibers. Imagine trying to polish the end grain of a wooden board. Well, the end grain of Jade is similar in the it's complicated to polish. I'm certain you have already looked at Google for "orange peel" Jade to see what I described. My gut says overheating is the issue. But there is probably more than one issue.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2019 6:41:46 GMT -5
Mysteriously clean. Hard and solid. But does not polish easy ? In chemistry agate or it's man made equivalent is considered an "inorganic glass". Don't ask me to explain. But it's true. Jade isn't at all "glassy". It's crystals in long felted fibers. Imagine trying to polish the end grain of a wooden board. Well, the end grain of Jade is similar in the it's complicated to polish. I'm certain you have already looked at Google for "orange peel" Jade to see what I described. My gut says overheating is the issue. But there is probably more than one issue. Well heat would be removed from the equation in a tumbler. Only low pressure grinding force if that helps. Well maybe, it is difficult to measure grinding force in a vibe because it is by impulse and varies sinusoidally at whooping ~3000Hz. Consider how fast abrasive breaks down in a vibe as opposed to a rotary. I will look up orange peel. Most rock structure is simple: Rocks that exhibit conchoidal fracturing usually polish well. Grainy chert and quartzite that are bound well with silica polish well. Rhyolite and jasper that are well silicified also polish well but terribly if not well silicified. Stones with cleavage are often tricky to polish unless they have high hardness like garnet and quartz. Never knew about a rock with long crystal fibers. That is just weird. Mysterious, inscrutable like the Orient ha. Must say this BC jade is some dense and fairly hard rock. Breaks like coarse grained quartzite and far from conchoidal. Best sawn.
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Post by 1dave on Jan 30, 2019 14:37:59 GMT -5
Jade hates me, orange peel... Ditto. Star Garnet is another stone thaat easily orange peels.
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Post by orrum on Jan 31, 2019 8:48:13 GMT -5
Yes Dave I tumbled some star garnet. Got some beautiful ones but they lost a lot of volume. About a third just looked cracked and yucky but I love the ones that shined up!!!
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Post by stephan on Jan 31, 2019 10:42:30 GMT -5
Mysteriously clean. Hard and solid. But does not polish easy ? In chemistry agate or it's man made equivalent is considered an "inorganic glass". Don't ask me to explain. But it's true. Jade isn't at all "glassy". It's crystals in long felted fibers. Imagine trying to polish the end grain of a wooden board. Well, the end grain of Jade is similar in the it's complicated to polish. I'm certain you have already looked at Google for "orange peel" Jade to see what I described. My gut says overheating is the issue. But there is probably more than one issue. In my experience, heat prevents orange peeling.
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SirRoxalot
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2003
Posts: 790
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Post by SirRoxalot on Nov 22, 2020 14:58:12 GMT -5
Any success tumble-polishing jade? I trimmed up a bunch of thin slabs of B.C. nephrite into pendant shapes, tumbled them nice and round, but no dice polishing. So I dopped them all up... and it turns out I can’t polish the damn stuff on the cabbing machine, either. And yet, the Chinese have entire blocks of cities polishing jade to the highest shine you could imagine!
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