.3 micron Linde A(Alumina) on a rough leather pad should do an
excellant job.Best would be successive steps of Diamond compound on
pellon pads.You can buy graded Diamond dust,mix to a past with
vasolene,then prepolish 3,000 micron,8,000 micron,and top it off with
50,000.If you have pitting,crush up a small piece and inlay the dust
with epoxy. Mark Liccini
Use cerium oxide on a hard felt disc using a horizontal machine. This
way you get to use the entire flat side, plus the edge and the
polishing wheel will be soaking wet which I find essential for
polishing rhodochrosite. Mix about half a teaspoon of cerium oxide
powder to a quart of water, fill it any plastic squirt bottle and
soak the felt wheel till it is soggy. Run machine start polishing;
continue to squirt polish in the center of the wheel and the
centrifugal action will bring the polish to cover the entire wheel.
Never let the wheel dry while working. Tin oxide used in the same
manner is just as good.
Min Azama in hot and muggy Tokyo.