[meteorite-list] Polishing stones

From: Michael Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:56 2004
Message-ID: <3A578988.7878_at_home.com>

tett wrote:
> Hello List,
> I have a number of stone macro mount meteorites that have saw marks. I want to polish these off but need to know how to go about it without damaging the specimens.
> Is there an easy and inexpensive way to do this or does one have to buy motorized lapidary equipment.
 Cheers, Tett
> _______________________________________________
Hi Tet & all,
        I am pretty sure this was answered a while back and is in the records -
however, for you and those who may have missed it, a QUICK overview:
1) Find a hardwear store that caries carborundum paper (like sand
paper, but made of carborundum - it is called "ruby" when red and
"saphire" when other colors and is a hardness of 9 instead of 7, as is
sand - cripticrystaline quartz). You must find a store that goes to AT
LEAST 1,500 fine.
2) Buy increasingly course to fine as high as they carry. Something
like 180, 250, 360, 600, 800, 1,200 2,500 is probably as high as you can
find.
3) Hold the partslice firmly and apply even pressure and move it in
an "8" motion over the paper - preferably on a piece of glass, which is
PERFECTLY FLAT.
4) Go from very course to very fine - make sure all marks are
removed from the previous grade before moving to the next grade.
5) It goes very quickly IF the piece is no larger than say a
rnickle. It goes MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more slowly as area of the piece
increases. A peice the size of a dime can be done in a few minutes to a
final "polish" (which is just the highest grade of paper you have)
while something larger than say the size of a silver dollar can take
HOURS.
6) The harder the material, the faster and better the "polish"
7) NEVER, EVER, EVER use water! No liquid is required - the paper is
not that expensive. It will wear out faster, but so what? You should be
able to do many, many specimens before using up a sheet of paper - don't
be chinzy - buy several of each grade and KEEP THEM SORTED. (manila
office folders work perfectly for this).
        Hope this has been helpful.
        Best wishes, Michael
        

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Received on Sat 06 Jan 2001 04:09:32 PM PST