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 Post subject: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 1:33 am 
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Hi
Read this article by jeff graham.
https://www.gemsociety.org/article/just ... de-polish/
He says oxide polishing is better than diamond.
Saves time and its effective aswell.
Whats your experience.


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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 5:39 am 
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Depends on the material, as well as other factors, as Jeff points out. Your experience may differ in details.

Jeff was an accomplished faceter and designer. However, he had strong opinions that not everybody agreed with, and his writings were some years ago. Tools and methods change.


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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 11:24 am 
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An old and very experienced faceter of my acquaintance felt that oxides were good for polishing stones softer than sapphire because they broke down finer and finer under the pressure of the lap. Horses for courses, I suppose, whatever suits your method of working.


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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 11:59 am 
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In some instances chemical polishing works like magic. In others it isn't an option at all.

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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2019 12:50 am 
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In which instance oxide is used? For quartz?


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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:09 am 
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14megapixel wrote:
In which instance oxide is used? For quartz?

Cerium oxide works very well on quartz. Zirconium oxide is even better.


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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2019 11:19 am 
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14megapixel wrote:
In which instance oxide is used? For quartz?


I've had a lot of success using oxides on just about everything with a Mohs hardness less than 8... With CeOx being my "go to" polish.

With a hardness of 7, all of the quartz variations take to CeOx like a duck to water. :) Lately, I've been using a 8K Lightning Lap as a quartz pre-polish before a few passes with CeOx.

Below is a piece of rutilated quartz. If a thread of rutile invades the surface, you may have to polish that particular facet with diamond, as the rutile is often harder than the quartz.


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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2019 12:00 pm 
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Rutile is actually softer than quartz, but it won't respond to CeO the same. Diamond doesn't much care about the difference.


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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2019 1:20 pm 
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Cerium oxide works very well on quartz. Zirconium oxide is even better.

Could you use Zirconium stick on a used Cerium oxide lap?

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 Post subject: Re: Oxide vs diamond polishing
PostPosted: Mon Sep 23, 2019 5:23 pm 
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Cerium seems to work on most silicates. Not surprising it wouldn't work on rutile (titanium oxide).

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