More regarding polishing inlaid malachite. This evening, having
sufficiently recovered from a terrible 3 day cold, I went out into
my shop and was rooting around looking for something to do. I came
across a bag of malachite that has been there for the past 20 years
or so and decided to cut a piece. I did so and finished a beautiful
52x43 freeform cab. Then, before leaving, I took a small extra piece
and tried some things with it. I gave it a semi-polish up to 600 and
then turned off the water. I held it on hi speed until it was to hot
to hold. Nothing. Then I moved to the 1200 and continued to press
into the wheel dry. Nothing. Finally, I went to the 14K and had the
same result - nothing…no oxidation, no nothing but a nice smooth
and polished surface.
So, I went over to the ZAM, loaded up the buff, and polished it hard
till I could hardly hold it. Nothing, no oxidation, no blackening, no
crumbling, nothing! I found nothing wet and nothing dry that would
explain the problem the member described. Nor have I ever came across
the problem as described over years of cutting malachite. Comments
anyone?
Cheers from Don in SOFL.