I’m working on some earrings, where the fine silver bezel will be
flush with the front of the set stone. So, when I polish the front
face, I want to use my lapidary polishing wheels like I normally
would do to polish a stone. Question is whether polishing silver on
my lap wheel (cerium oxide on leather for example) would work? I’m
thinking to just try it, but worried the silver might contaminate the
polishing wheel in some way. Anyoneever try this before? BTW, I think
the result will look very cool. It does hide the side of the stone,
which for most cases you might not want to do, but in this case I’m
setting small intarsias, so nothing really showing on the side of the
"stone" anyway.
Todd Welti
Works fine, no untoward side-effects; I do it all the time when
making flush-to-metal inlays. If the fit between bezel and stone is
not tight you may get a pinkish line of cerium oxide forcing itself
into the stone/metal gap. Usually the steamer or the ultrasonic will
take care of it.
Cheers
Hans Durstling
Moncton, Canada
Hi Todd, I do channel inlay and the face of the piece is ground,
sanded and polished with a very slight curvature. The silver around
the circumference of the piece and separating each piece of stone
from its neighbours is ground and sanded flush with lapidary wheels
and rez belts on an expandable drum and polished with cerium oxide
on a lapidary polishing pad. The silver polishes well and does not
contaminate the polishing pad. Hope this helps, Karen