Powdered Polishing Compounds

[Jon Lewis]

The more discussion there is about polishing the more intrigued I am about the random orbital method of polishing silver. I use a buffing wheel for the copper and it works well enough to be plated but it doesn’t do as well with the silver. I asked my local Jeweler’s supply about powdered abrasives but the just carry abrasives in bar form.

So my question is where do the random orbital polishing daguerreians get their abrasives?

[photolytic]

Powdered Rouge:

http://www.progresstool.com/pd_red_rouge_polishing.cfm

Powdered Lampblack:

http://naturalpigments.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=480-50S

http://shop2.chemassociates.com/shopsite/Chemassoc2/PAS-lampblack.html

[Andy Stockton]

Electron Microscopy Sciences has an interesting assortment of quality abrasives in modest quantities at pretty decent prices. This is the abrasives link:

http://www.emsdiasum.com/microscopy/products/materials/polishing_supplies.aspx

The whole conglomerate with all products can be found here:

http://www.emsdiasum.com

I have bought some 3 micron alumina from them.

[Jon Lewis]

John and Andy, thank you for the links! I didn’t realize that lampblack for polishing was the same as the pigment and I found some at a local art supply store.

Is the Chromium Oxide (Green Rouge) powdered as well or used in bar form?

[Pobboravsky]

Hi Jon et. al.

Yes, chrome oxide is available in powder form.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Maimeri-Pure-Pigments-Chrome-Oxide-Green-Carbon-Black_W0QQitemZ310121957007QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item310121957007&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

Keywords for search engines (supplies): lapidary, metallurgy, Baikowski(0.1 micron alumina polishing powder, agglomerate free), optical polishing media, artists pigments.

Good luck,

Irv

[Andy Stockton]

I also found Covington Engineering a while back. They carry lapdary supplies including Chome Oxide. I can’t vouch for them yet as I haven’t ordered from them, but they have certainly been in business a while (1848!). Maybe they supplied the original daguerreotypists.

http://www.covington-engineering.com/Lapidary_Polishing_Powders.htm

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