Barrel polishing titanium jewellery?

[C.G.]

Hello,

I make (grade 1) titanium jewellery, and was wondering if there was some type of polishing compound or polishing medium I could use in my barrelling machine to get an at least close-to-polished finish on my pieces that would require very little (or at least a lot less) hand-finishing? Some of my items have a hammered texture, and some are smooth - in both cases, I’m going for a shiny, highly polished result without spending hours doing it by hand (I’ve been using the green Dialux compound on a hard felt wheel, and my pendant motor, which is effective, but very time consuming, makes a huge mess, and goes through a lot of felt wheels and compound).

Stainless steel shot in burnishing solution left running for several hours definitely does something to the pieces I tried, but it still needs quite a bit of hand polishing. I’m wondering if there is some kind of fine abrasive I could add to the mix to speed up and enhance the process a bit, without removing too much material (some surface removal is needed though, to get a nice shiny finish).

So has anyone had good results with a particular polishing medium on titanium in a barrelling machine?