Quick-change Flex-shaft Handpieces Compared
Q: I've got a Foredom #10 handpiece, but the lever action is stiff. Which quick-release flex-shaft lever is the easiest to operate?
Repolishing a Carbide Burnisher
Q: I seem to have scratched up the point of my tungsten carbide burnisher, probably by rubbing it on a diamond or something. How can I repolish it?
Using a Boil-out Pot
Q: In older jewelry instruction books, I keep reading references to "boiling out" jewelry in a "boil-out pot". Is that just a warm pickle pot, or something else?
Magnetic Tumblers and Magnetic Stirrers
Q: What’s the difference between a magnetic tumbler and a magnetic stirrer?
Files—How to Extend Their Lifespan
Q: What’s the life expectancy for files? My favorite ones seem to be getting duller. I thought that more expensive files would last longer, isn’t that true? Is there a better way to clean them than by using nitric acid?
Is My Ultrasonic Really Working?
Q: How can I tell if my ultrasonic cleaner is working? Are there any immediate effects visible in the fluid?
Inhaling Polishing Compounds
Q: I’ve been polishing with tripoli and rouge, using a paper dust mask, but I’ve noticed that some of the compounds are still ending up in my nose. Is this a problem and if so, what should I do about it?
Bronze Look for Plaster
Q: I know there is a process to make plaster objects look like bronze. How is it done?
Alternative Casting Materials
Q: I would like to cast something into molds (besides plaster of Paris) that would end up looking like white marble. Should I use polyester resin or what?
Surface Treatments for Ceramics
Q: I’m making some ceramic sculpture and I don’t want to glaze it, I want to treat the surfaces differently. What can I do?
Concrete Textures
Q: I’m interested in experimenting with concrete to get different surface effects than the usual boring cast concrete look. Any suggestions?
Direct Concrete without Casting
Q: How could I make sculpture directly in concrete, without having to go through modeling a form, making a mold, and casting the concrete?
Smooth Surfaces in Plastiline Clay
Q: I want to make a small sculpture in plastiline (oil-based) clay. I want to create extremely smooth flowing curves, with no tooling marks. What is the best way to achieve this result?
Carving Amber
Q: I’ve picked up some nice pieces of amber and I was wondering how to carve it.
Stone Carving
Q: I am interested in carving a piece of stone and was wondering if it can be done without a lot of fancy equipment.
Pickle Solution for Cleaning Jewelry
Q: Is there anything that will help a pickle solution remove those nasty pink oxide residues from the surface of jewelry?
Cleaning Off Polishing Compounds
Q: After I polish a piece of jewelry, I wash it by hand with hot water and dishwashing soap, then I’ll throw it in the ultrasonic cleaner, and even after that it still has residues from the polishing compounds. What can I do to get this stuff off?
Lapidary Polishing Pads and Points
To start, it may help to describe what is probably the most common polishing process.
After the stone has been properly prepared for polishing by a series of sanding steps, the polishing compound, generally a metallic oxide in powder form, is mixed in a liquid, usually water, and applied to the polishing pad.
Polishing Obsidian
Obsidian is a volcanic glass which often contains attractive colors and inclusions, but has a reputation as being difficult to polish, although it is fairly soft and is usually uniform in structure. When people are having problems polishing obsidian, I find it is almost always because they didn’t get the sanding done adequately before attempting to polish.
Polishing Charoite
Charoite is purple calcium potassium silicate. It is usually found combined with minerals of other colors, including black (Augerine Augite), orange (Tinaksite), and transparent crystals (Microcline Feldspar). Most Charoite comes from the countries of the former Soviet Union.
I have not found it to be very heat-sensitive.
Lapidary Polishing Pads and the Proper Speeds to Spin Them
Unfortunately there just isn’t one speed that works best. The glass industry has published a lot of research work on polishing glass and they found if you can keep everything else equal, the faster the surface contacting the glass runs, the faster the polish happens.
Polishing Rhodonite
Rhodonite, an attractive pink and white gemstone, has a structure commonly called sugary: the material has small openings that will give an “orange-peel” surface that resembles badly polished jade. It is not the same thing, however. The orange-peel on jade comes from directional dissimilar hardness, or grain structure; the voids in rhodonite are actual holes and will not polish out.
Polishing Jade
I started researching jade polishing several years ago when I took over our club shop. I could get a polish on jade, but trying to tell someone else how to do it didn’t seem to work. What I found, when I started reading, was that most authors had the same problem I had: they could do it, but the ability to someone else was hard.
Lapidary Polishing Compounds
Everyone wants to know what the “best” polishing compound is and how it is used. Unfortunately I don’t think there is a single “best”—just a better one for the stone in question, depending on your technique. But here are some of my thoughts on the subject.