Polishing glass

Jewelry Discussion
1

I make fused glass and PMC pendants. Sometimes when firing the
finished piece, I don’t wipe the glass thoroughly enough with
rubbing alcohol (not intentionally of course), and after the firing
it seems that the glass has a very light haze of silver, just enough
to dull the glossy surface of the glass. It does not appear to be
devitrification. Does anyone know of a polish I can use to restore
the glassy surface? I have a flex shaft, so suggestions for any
substance and/or attachments would be appreciated.

Thanks for any help you can offer,
Lorraine

2

How do you fuse your glass? electric resistance furnace or a flame?
The bloom your getting is caused by the atmosphere in fusing being
insufficiently oxidising.

To remove this either re fire in the right atmosphere, or as you
suggest, repolish. cold. Use any hard white compound on a hard felt
wheel. Needs to be 3in dia at 1500 rpm. Dremel is really for
minature poishing.

3

Lorraine- Try tin or chromium oxide. I buy it in powdered form and
use it wet with a felt buff. It’s commonly used to put a final polish
on stones and works just dandy on glass.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.

Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

4

For lapidaries, the traditional polish for glass and quartz is
cerium oxide, but recently Gearloose Lapidary introduced a zirconium
oxide composite lap and a zirconium oxide polish stick which works
wonderfully on quartz, and probably on glass as well.

5

You might consider using cerium oxide and make a slurry with optical
grade cerium oxide powder mixed with distilled water and apply it to
leather, or you may choose to use the 3M Trizact polishing belts and
discs.

For polishing the facets on quartz, obsidian, feldspar, and opal, I
make a slurry with distilled water and Rhodite 904 cerium oxide
purchased from Universal Photonics, Inc. in New York. I paint the
slurry with an old make-up brush on a special polishing lap just for
cerium oxide. Steve likes the cerium oxide belts and discs for
polishing his carved opals and other silicate gem materials, and
these products are carried by Santa Fe Jewelers Supply. The belts are
affixed to wheels on a stationary carving machine, and the discs are
attached to hand-held carving tools.

http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep8001
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep8002

From 3M
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep8003

3M Trizact Lapping Film 569XA

Microreplicated abrasive product using tightly graded cerium
oxide mineral coated onto a PSA (Pressure Sensitive Adhesive)
polyester film backing.

Over the years, we have found that the use of cerium oxide imparts
an excellent polish on quartz, glass, opals, and other gem materials.

Nancy and Steve Attaway

6

Try Zam.

–RC

7

Thank you for the suggestions. new things to try, sounds like at
least one of those ideas will work well for my purposes.

As for how I fire the glass, I use a small electric kiln, not
vented. I’m pretty naive about scientific things, so I don’t know if
this is an oxidising atmoshhere. would it help to vent the kiln for
all or part of the firing?

Thanks again for all the help. you guys (and gals) are great!

Lorraine