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[mrlnavy]

Which do you prefer or are they good for different types of minerals?  I am currently using cesium oxide.

Thank you

[Stonemon]

I am hoping it is cerium oxide you are polishing with.
Different materials work better with different polishes. One size does not fit all...
What are you polishing?
Bill

[lithicbeads]

Aluminum oxide is often used as a prepolish  in tumblers as well and cerium oxide would be the choice for quart based stones. There are various grades of cerium  that seem to work a bit differently  but only experienced folks seem to see the difference.

[bobby1]

On rare occasions I use Rapid Polish usually on nephrite jade or Lapis but for 95% of my work I use cerium oxide on a carpet covered wheel.
Bob

[Phishisgroovin]

i just stickied a guide on what polishes to use on what rock or mineral in this area this post is in.
Check it out.

[mrlnavy]

Thank you all. I use the cesium oxide. Right now I am polishing some red jasper and some quartz. Not having much luck polishing my obsidian.

Thank you all for your help.

[bobby1]

For me cerium works great on Obsidian.
Bob

[gemfeller]

For me cerium works great on Obsidian.
Bob

Me too.  The trick with obsidian is very careful prepolish. It will take a great polish with cerium but the preparatory sanding steps have to be done very thoroughly.  While it's relatively soft it sands a little differently than agate and jasper and has a tendency to hide small scratches. 

[mirkaba]

I use cerium oxide but mostly tin oxide. Although I have a long standing love/hate relationship with obsidian I get pretty good results with tin oxide.

[Greg Hiller]

>cesium<

To be clear, I hope no one is using cesium oxide. 

I agree with what's been said, cerium (I usually use on leather) works well on silica type stones (agates, obsidian, jaspers).  For malachite sometimes I get a better polish with tin oxide on leather.  For Lapis I use diamond Nova wheels to the finest grit I have (8,000), and then go to 50,000 diamond paste on a felt wheel with a rotary tool.  Turquoise is always Zam with muslin at the end for me. 

[irockhound]

I have used Chrome oxide on Denim for obsidian and had great results.