Lapidaryforum.net
Let's Rock => Rock Talk => Topic started by: jha789 on March 30, 2017, 09:08:17 AM
-
I was wondering if anyone has found a way to get a good polish on Tiffany Stone. Most of it that I have cut only takes a fairly dull polish. I have been using mostly tin oxide.
-
The good Tiffany stone will polish like glass using similar techniques to agate or jasper. But since the material is classified a rock and not a mineral. There are all types of hardness zones in one piece so polish can be a bear. Best and most even result will come from sealing if you cutting the lower grade porous material.
-
So true. Tiffany ranges from pieces that are just clumps of dust that disintegrate when you look at them, to pieces that are like super hard and look like agate. I have more of the crappy stuff than i would like and its pretty useless to work with. The better stuff that really takes a shine tends to be expensive, often really expensive. I once bought a batch from someone that included pieces that they had polished nicely on one side, but where all the other sides were soft and crumbly. They were really strange and i still have them in the basement somewhere, unless they have broken down into dust piles since I last saw them.
-
As much of the material is a mixture of opal and fluorite it can be difficult to get an even glassy polish. The best results I have managed are with Linde A with wet leather. Even this will not get a glass polish on all the pieces because, as has been mentioned, it is to porous.
Bob Johannes
The Amethyst Rose
-
I have had success using Cerium on leather.