Lapidary question

[Ankolosova]

Good day, have following question to ask .... tried to ask it on facebook and got 0 reply,,, maybe here will be lucky..Have set some lapis lazuli stones into silver. Have some markings (eg polishing was damaged in small pieces and stone became dirty). Any idea what can i use to repolish them? Diamond paste? Dialux? Cerium oxide?Trying to keep it perfect. Thank you.

[china]

Lapis lazuli can be very unforgiving when is comes to polishing I used to use Cerium oxide, how ever after being educated by a real stone polisher I now use Tin Oxide seems to make a difference.

[ps_bond]

What do you polish on - felt, leather?

[Ankolosova]

Lapis lazuli can be very unforgiving when is comes to polishing I used to use Cerium oxide, how ever after being educated by a real stone polisher I now use Tin Oxide seems to make a difference.

good I have asked here! so tin oxide would be better for polishing.... on felt? right with a bit of water?

[Ankolosova]

hi Peter, if Q was for me I would use felt yes, but looking for education here..... maybe something else is there

[Ankolosova]

also if I may ask! would lapis any good for barrel polishing machine? to finish item at the end?

[Dennis]

Hi Anna,

As Bob says, lapis is rather unforgiving to re-polish. In particular you don't want to spoil the cabochon profile, because it will show badly on opaque blue, so you might have to restore it to a clean shine, but accept any deeper scratches.

My first recourse has always been Polygold 2000, which are impregnated felts use with a screw type mandrel in my motor. You can order them from Fischer and they will be with you in a week:
https://www.goldschmiedebedarf.de/product_info.php?products_id=11231&language=en.

If you want to increase the shine, then I would recommend Vonax, which is meant for acrylic, applied with a very soft mop such as this: https://www.cooksongold.com/category_select.jsp?channel=uk&query=999ACO Dennis.

[china]

I use a 200 mm /8" 25 mm thick felt buff, (not cheap)and yes mix with water and coat buff with a thin slurry, although the products Dennis mentioned seem like they may be worth a try

[ps_bond]

I've got some felt with my flat lap; don't think it's 25mm from memory (more like 13mm). Amusingly, it came from Moleroda...

[Ankolosova]

Many thanks for all opinions.! I will try now to practice on a spare bead and see what will be best solution. seems as it can be ticky to clean it and there is risk of spoiling my job, I will maybe even consider it to leave as it is ... as really it's me trying to keep it perfect! ... TX again !