tom - your question about working/polishing horn has probably been
answered since i had an intimate encounter with gabrielle & her
accompanying furies: wind, rain, flooding, lack of power for 4 days,
& an inadequate supply of appropriate words to meet all of the above.
some people describe themselves as living “on the water” - for
several days we lived “OVER the water”. some of the damage has been
contained: most of the water in the first floor is gone - except for
that soaked up by the furniture, & lots of etc. moved there to
recarpet the second floor; the swim out to corral 2 sections of the
dock bound for tampa bay was successful - no small feat with 35 to 55
mph wind-driven rain & choppy waves, of course they’re now on dry
ground & it might be a challenge to get the 500+ pound sections back
over the seawall; the live wire lying next to my car had to wait
several days - but the car was no problem to drive from under the
three 30’-40’ palm trees lolling on it - just required
sure-footedness. speaking of ‘foot’, i’ve spent so much time in water
my toenail polish has almost all come off. the good news is that my
ton+ of rocks endured unscathed; & isn’t that what counts? to your
horn polishing, i cut/carve a lot of fossil & 19th century ivory so
these methods will work for you:
if you have a wheel/belt/quick lap, use 800 grit to smoothe the horn
surface & move up to 1500 if you have it. with a flexshaft felt buff
use some tripoli to get a good prepolish, holding surface against the
light to check for scratches - this step could work instead of the
800 to 1500 grit, but takes longer. with another buff polish with
’fabulustre’ or ‘zam’ to finish with a glasslike shine. if you have
to do any carving, etc., on the horn, do the final polishing after
that step. you will be pleased with the super smooth shine.
have to run buy more toenail polish - ive