He made them quickly and now I'm trying to figure out how to make
them. Also I'd like to see what you veteran stone-setters out
there use.
There are only two materials I use for making burnishers: broken
ball bur shafts (thanks to Paul Reilly), and various diameters of
water hardening drill stock.
Using the shaft from a .5mm ball bur gives a working tip of even
less making it suitable for burnishing bezel edges on even the
smallest stones. Carefully reshape the end (where the cutting ball
broke off, finish with available abrasives until you can use your
silicon pink wheel on the flexshaft to polish. The pink wheels, at
high speeds on the standard flexshaft give a superior surface to
polishing them with steel compounds on the polishing lathe. Whatever
your final tip diameter be sure there are hard edges left as this
tool will scratch stones if not properly polished or forced against
the stone during burnishing.
The second, the water hardening drill stock, can be heated to red,
forged and ground to shape, hardened by heating until no longer
magnetic (really hot), quenched in water, and polished, again, with
1500grit wet/dry and a pink wheel. I don’t bother with tempering for
burnishers. The harder the better.
Stainless, especially that used for flatware, is not hard enough to
give a decent burnish on anything other than 18k yellow. 18k white
and 14k w&Y, need the harder steel to really put a polished surface
on
the work.
Some commercially available stainless sold in 3 & 6 foot lengths is
harder but still not worth the trouble for how long it takes to get a
decent surface.
Les Brown