Polishing Hard-To-Reach Places

Someone was asking recently about how to polish hard-to-reach places;
well, I just saw this bench trick in JCK Magazine that looked useful
and thought I would pass it on. (I haven’t tried it yet.) The
technique was contributed by Jeffrey Mathews, CMBJ, of Jeffrey Mathews
Designs, Dallas.

Take an Adalox paper-backed aluminum oxide sanding disc. Put the
disc on its mandrel backwards. Then, while it’s spinning in your flex
shaft machine, rough up the paper backing by holding the disc against
the front side of a second, coarse-surfaced disc.

Apply polishing compound to the rough, paper backside of the first
sanding disc and use it in those hard-to-reach places. The roughed-up
paper surface should hold the charge of polishing compound easily.

Sounds like a great tip!

Beth

you know, the one that I love best, that has always worked for me is
as old as jewelry making. Cut leather chamois into strips, or even
some cloth thread that is thick enough for your purpose. Tie them to
your bench, many jewelers have several pins of this, holding numerous
threads and cloth strips of various widths. you really only need 3
nails on your bench to tie to, so one nail for each compound, then to
each nail tie the various widths of fabric and leather. Then rap up
and down on each, holding the loose end tight, with the compound of
choice. Thread your piece onto the chamois, or place it so that the
thread or leather is against it, and back and forth you go, against
the tautly held strip. Cleans up places GREAT. Fantastic for
corners, but be careful you don’t get rid of any angles you may want.
That is the reason for the various widths of strips from each nail. It
is centuries old, and still works fantastic. I find often that the
wheels just wont get into areas, because of surrounding areas and
surfaces, and this just works great.

A. Austin
Silversmith

You can buy snap-on plastic discs with a felt surface. These discs
hold polishing compounds very well, better than roughed up paper
discs. You can buy them from Gesswein. They’re rather pricey, but I
find them very useful.

Donna Shimazu

All, Have you ever tried 14,000 diamond paste to polish jewelry. In
those hard to reach places 14K diamond paste on a tooth pick or
cotton swab will work quickly. Around bezel set cabachons 14k
diamond on a cloth buff will finish the bezel very fast and not brush
mark the stone. Diamond paste polishes rapidly, is inexpensive, and
a little goes a long way.

Gerry Galarneau

I don’t use polishing compounds very often, prefering silicon wheels
to finish. I did buy a tube of diamond paste once to remove any marks
I might have left on stones after using the wheels and never really
got it to work for me. It appeared oil based and rather dry. What are
the general rules to using any diamond paste compound?

Leda

You could use olive oil or you could use something like Crystallube.
Mix in enough to gain the consistancy you prefer. KPK

Leda, Apply your diamond compound directly to the buff or wood. Using
light pressure put the piece to be polished to the buff. Use a
clean buff and 14,000 or 50,000 diamond compound. Polish will be
very quick. A little diamond goes a long way. I use cotton buffs on
metal and felt buffs on stone. Soft felt for soft stones and light
pressure. Hard felt for hard stones and heavier pressure.

Gerry Galarneau