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Daily Wire Tip Feb. 28: Achieving a High Polish on Your Stones

By on February 28, 2010
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Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip
February 28, 2010

Question:

I like to form my own cabochons and free form pieces for wire wrapping. I seem to be having trouble getting the high polish I would like to have on my stones.  What is the best method or polish to use before I wire wrap my jewelry?  I currently have cerium oxide and tin oxide powder, but don’t know exactly how to use it to obtain the gloss I would like to have.

Answer:

Wow, it’s time to begin your own ‘polishing manual’. We have spent years working to get that high gloss polish on many different rock materials. Although cerium oxide is a great all-round polish, it just doesn’t work on some rocks like turquoise, which we use Zam on leather, felt or cotton wheels to produce the final polish. You may be ready to begin experimenting with diamond compound as well. (One tip is that you do not have to purchase the specialty extending fluids to work with diamond; rather a spray can of silicon spray from a hardware or auto parts store works fine.) The product called Super Cerium Oxide works well when used on leather wheels for a lot of the softer stones. Check your favorite lapidary supply source for a good book on polishing cabs and then write your own manual as you experiment with various methods. (And there are some stones that just do not take a polish well at all!)

Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong

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3 Comments

  1. avatar

    Clyde

    March 1, 2010 at 1:11 am

    Poor polish can also be the result of not having removed all the scraches from the grinding and sanding steps. In order to achive the best polish possible for each type of stone it is necessary to have removed all the scraches from each step in the grinding and sanding process. I find that a little extra time on the 400 and 600 grit steps pays off at the polishing step. Tks.

    Clyde

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  3. avatar

    made jiwi

    August 18, 2013 at 10:03 pm

    what material to polish stone