Hi, I have done many Google searches, I’ve searched the Ganoksin website, now I turn to you for help, please.
I work with metal and stone. Metal is Copper, Bronze, Silver, Cupro-Nickel. Stones are from Azurite to White Opal. Also like Quartz, Lapis, Amethyst, etc.
I have these polishes.
Luxi Black Grit: ?
Luxi Gray Grit: ?
Luxi Blue Grit: ? read that it might be 600
Luxi White Grit: ?
Bobbing Compound (Brownish) Grit 600
Dialux Green Grit: 2,000
Rio Red Rouge Grit: 1800
Zam Grit: 14,000 (Chromium Oxide is 10K CO Paste: 50K)
I also have diamond paste: .5 Micron 50K, 1 Micron 14K, 2.5 Micron 9K, 5 Micron 4.5K, .25 Micron 100K. I understand the order to use these.
Question: Is Luxi Blue higher grit than Bobbing?
Is Luxi Black and Gray lower grit than Bobbing?
Is Luxi White Higher than, Dialux Green and Zam?
I am trying to figure out the order to use the compounds.
This might be the same as what Julie posted, but I reached to my Rio Grande contact through Rio Pro and passed on your questions. Here’s what Rio Grande said. They also said in a second email that paying attention to the required buff materials and speeds is important.
Hi Jeffery
We got lucky and got back a quick response from the Team.
Here is what Phil Scott had to say.
Question: Is Luxi Blue higher grit than Bobbing?
Luxi blue is finer than Bobbing compound
Is Luxi Black and Gray lower grit than Bobbing?
Gray would be similar and black would or be similar or possibly courser but they will cut faster than bobbing compound and still leave a finer finish
Is Luxi White Higher than, Dialux Green and Zam?
White is finer than zam. In fact it is finer than red rouge though it still cuts fast. But leaves a finer finish. The yellow is very similar to zam but still cuts faster so you can use less.
Here is a link to a pretty handy chart that helps.
Hope this is all that you need Tony! I’ve never used these compounds.
as a side note…for fabricated pieces that have been taken up to 600 grit sandpaper, i have found that what works best for me, on sterling silver, is white diamond on a fine muslin stitched buff/ or a yellow treated buff, as a pre-polish (i have been told it is similar to 800 grit), and final finish with Picasso Blue on a fine unstitched ballon cloth buff
This is great information and it should answer the OP’s question. I used LUXI compounds for a while as they were cleaner, but went back to my basic rubber abrasive wheels to contour and sand, then tripoli and rouge. Once in a while I will use a gray compound from DICO in Utica NY that removes firescale faster than Tripoli. My $.02…Rob
The info shown for Luxi seems to clear up what all the compounds are for. It seems to me that you can get lost in the weeds with thinking about too many compounds and too many steps. This is true for cabbing, where many people seem to think that they have to run thru all the grits on a Genie, when the old timers just used 320>600> oxide polish…maybe a step between 600 and polish with 3000 grit. As Rob said, the old sequence was sand to 400 or 600 grit and then use tripoli and then rouge. Red for yellow gold and white for white gold. If you need something more aggressive than tripoli, there is bobbing compound. So probably sand to 320 or so, and then use one of the Luxis for the first scratch removal and then a finer one for polish, like a rouge. One could get confused with so many polishes unless you start putting them into categories like first polish and final polish. Faceters seem to sometimes do the same thing that cabbers do and run thru a lot of grits…this really increases your cutting time, because you have to use each grit on about 8 to 16 facets in each row on the pavilion or crown. I was taught to use a coarse lap (180, 260 or 325), then a cutting lap (600), a prepolish (3k or 8K) and then a polish with either an oxide or 50K diamond. Just keep things as simple as you can. I’m a little suspicious that Luxi compounds can cut faster than a conventional compound, yet leave a finer finish. Someone is going to have to explain that to me, Lucy. -royjohn
