Leather Polishing

In general the answer is yes . There is a choice of rough leather or hard leather, choose hard, and with soft stones I keep more water on the pad. The polishing pads are cheap so I keep many pads in their own bags each with a different type of polish to avoid cross contamination. The rough leather develops a lot of heat by friction and is great for hard stones that need the heat variable in the polishing stage.  Heat is an enemy of many soft stones at least in my experience.  A lot also depends on the particular type of soft stone being cut and the right polish is also crucial and this will change with the type of material.  This makes it easy when you have multiple pads with different polishes and a simple spin to change and you're good to go.  On some soft stones like Turquoise many people use muslin buffs with Zam polish also I have never used that combo myself.

I keep several canvas, denim, Hard and soft Leather pads for use. 

I cut a lot of stones but nothing I think compared to what Bob Johannes (<on this forum) says he cuts, he might be a great opinion to get here as I might be wrong and people have better methods than I use.

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gunsil said:

It is bad news to grind rocks out in the open. You can get yourself a bad case of "grinder's consumption" a terminal lung disease that grinders in cutlery factories used to get, and they even had water cooled wheels. Best to use a tumbler for the work you're doing. You can use an old cement mixer to tumble large rocks like you wish to do. If you work stone in the open make sure you use a high quality respirator mask, the at least $35.00 kind. This is even if you're hand polishing with sandpaper, the dust is deadly. There is no fooling around here, dremels are particularly bad since their high RPM really spreads the deadly rock dust around. Most professional stone grinding equipment runs at much much lower RPMs than dremels. I am a lapidary, please be careful while you have fun polishing rocks.

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When hand sanding I work in a big pan or bowl of water. When I want to change to a finer grit, it gets too cloudy, or I am done I throw the water outside. I then rinse the pan a time or two more and dump that water outside(I've read it isn't good to get that stuff in your sink.) When working with a dremel I either work in a pan of water that can fully submerge the stone or I pour water on as I go. Have tried to make a simple water drip before, but haven't bothered with it lately.

Silicosis does worry me. I'm guessing that is what you were talking about or something similar. So the methods I use would be really that unafe? Only problem I can think of is if I have any splash and don't wipe that up and it drys and becomes dust. I assumed it was safer than the amount of silica dust my girlfriend and I inhale from our cat's litter box

Do appreciate your advice. I'll consider changing my methods if they still seem pretty unsafe. I've considered a rock tumbler, but I'm also interested in small stone carving. I don't currently have a good work area except maybe at my parents house in their back garage.

galenrog said:

Have you looked at the WIDE variety of tools and equipment available at a local rock or lapidary shop? In lapidary publications? Local rock, lapidary, or gem shows? I did a lot of lapidary before the arthritis took over the hands, and I had saws, rotary and vibratory tumblers, grinding and polishing wheels, and countless other tools. Perhaps one of the several lapidary forums could get you more accurate and specialized advice. Have fun. Enjoy.

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To my knowledge I don't have a good rock shop that is local. Money is tight right now and I like to make small stone carvings. From what 've read a quality lapidary setup with a slab saw, trim saw, and grinder/polisher would cost me 3,000-4,000 dollars. Lapidary grinder's/polishers alone seem to mostly run in the 1,000+ range. I would like to buy all of that someday, but since I'm currently working mostly with small found stones and am not super into making cabochons I don't think it is worth the investment right now. Also since my parents are a drive away I prefer something I can run in a small area of my house. If people consider that to be really bad, even with using water, I'll probably have to stop though. Kind of sucks because I've really wanted to make lasting carvings out of stone and sell some to help with my financial situation. Not sure if there are any dust collection equipment I can use in a house.

Thanks just thought I would give this place a try because I used to visit this site a lot in the past.

When hand sanding I work in a big pan or bowl of water. When I want to change to a finer grit, it gets too cloudy, or I am done I throw the water outside. I then rinse the pan a time or two more and dump that water outside(I've read it isn't good to get that stuff in your sink.) When working with a dremel I either work in a pan of water that can fully submerge the stone or I pour water on as I go. Have tried to make a simple water drip before, but haven't bothered with it lately.Silicosis does worry me. I'm guessing that is what you were talking about or something similar. So the methods I use would be really that unafe? Only problem I can think of is if I have any splash and don't wipe that up and it drys and becomes dust. I assumed it was safer than the amount of silica dust my girlfriend and I inhale from our cat's litter boxDo appreciate your advice. I'll consider changing my methods if they still seem pretty unsafe. I've considered a rock tumbler, but I'm also interested in small stone carving. I don't currently have a good work area except maybe at my parents house in their back garage.To my knowledge I don't have a good rock shop that is local. Money is tight right now and I like to make small stone carvings. From what 've read a quality lapidary setup with a slab saw, trim saw, and grinder/polisher would cost me 3,000-4,000 dollars. Lapidary grinder's/polishers alone seem to mostly run in the 1,000+ range. I would like to buy all of that someday, but since I'm currently working mostly with small found stones and am not super into making cabochons I don't think it is worth the investment right now. Also since my parents are a drive away I prefer something I can run in a small area of my house. If people consider that to be really bad, even with using water, I'll probably have to stop though. Kind of sucks because I've really wanted to make lasting carvings out of stone and sell some to help with my financial situation. Not sure if there are any dust collection equipment I can use in a house.Thanks just thought I would give this place a try because I used to visit this site a lot in the past.

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