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Author Topic: Is there any way to fix these Chrysocolla beads?  (Read 1427 times)

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Napaea

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Is there any way to fix these Chrysocolla beads?
« on: October 26, 2017, 09:39:58 AM »

Is it even possible to polish them with a machine? The edges of the beads have gotten banged up I guess...is there any way to fix them?
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irockhound

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Re: Is there any way to fix these Chrysocolla beads?
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2017, 11:24:46 AM »

The answer is technically yes you can but I don't know many people who would want to try.  So many facets and if you try to keep the facets, when you fix one it is now larger than the rest because of the surface removal and then you chase the problem around the beads.  Other option is to lightly dress just the scuffs on a higher grit wheel which gets rid of the white rough spots but softens the facets.  Since the material is pretty soft and you only really need to address the corners on some beads, you could probably do much of that work with silicon carbide sandpaper and go up to 2k grit used for color sanding or higher and then hand polish the spots with a dremel or foredom with some Tin Oxide or Cerium on a felt or leather buff.  Remember that doing it by the hand method you will soften the edges that have the scratches.

One thing to take into mind is if you decide to do it by hand that you want to work them wet.  However when you wet the stone as I am sure you have noticed the scratches seem to disappear.  Take a fine point sharpy and mark the scratches with the black tip.  When wet sanding, when the black goes away the scratch should be gone.
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