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polishing glass

updated sun 14 feb 99

 

eden@sover.net on thu 11 feb 99

Perhaps there's somebody willing to give me the ABC on bringing a ground
glass edge back to a nice smooth shine without having to put it back in the
kiln. Is this similar to polishing silver castings?

Thanks in advance,

Eleanora

Kenneth D. Westfall on fri 12 feb 99

Well I'm not familiars with polishing glass but to polish stones we use 600
grit silicon carbide sand paper wet then finish polishing with a leather or
hard felt wheel with wet tin oxide. Remembering to keep the stone wet and
not let the heat build up.
Kenneth D. Westfall
Pine Hill Pottery
R.D. #2 Box 6AA
Harrisville, WV 26362
pinehill@ruralnet.org
http://www.ruralnet.org/pinehillpottery

stephen baxter on sat 13 feb 99

I had a glass company for a few years, polishing glass by hand is a time
comsuming process. The principal is to scratch the surface with silcon
carbide grit or diamond grit. It depends on the state of scratches to begin
with. If you can feel the scratch with your thumb nail you have to start
with #80 - grind until the surface is smooth and frosty. Then #120 or #200
grit again until the surface is an even frost. Work your way up through
#400, #600 pumice then cerium checking each step to make sure you haven't
left any scratches from the previous grit. If you do you have to go back to
the coarsest grit which will remove the scratch and start over. Amazing
Glazing(see web site) sells diamond pads and disks to polish glass. they
also have a alumina oxide disk system from 3M which works pretty well. I
would suggest calling them if you have a lot of polishing to do. Using a
disk or belt sander is the way to go if you have a lot of polishing
otherwise the hand pads will work well if not slowly.
Steve

----------
> From: Kenneth D. Westfall
> To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
> Subject: Re: polishing glass
> Date: Friday, February 12, 1999 7:53 AM
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Well I'm not familiars with polishing glass but to polish stones we use
600
> grit silicon carbide sand paper wet then finish polishing with a leather
or
> hard felt wheel with wet tin oxide. Remembering to keep the stone wet
and
> not let the heat build up.
> Kenneth D. Westfall
> Pine Hill Pottery
> R.D. #2 Box 6AA
> Harrisville, WV 26362
> pinehill@ruralnet.org
> http://www.ruralnet.org/pinehillpottery

Don & Isao Morrill on sat 13 feb 99

At 07:53 2/12/99 EST, Kenneth D. Westfall wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Well I'm not familiars with polishing glass but to polish stones we use 600
>grit silicon carbide sand paper wet then finish polishing with a leather or
>hard felt wheel with wet tin oxide. Remembering to keep the stone wet and
>not let the heat build up.
>Kenneth D. Westfall
>Pine Hill Pottery
>R.D. #2 Box 6AA
>Harrisville, WV 26362
>pinehill@ruralnet.org
>http://www.ruralnet.org/pinehillpottery
>

K.D.Westfall,Polishing glass,
I recall that The Amateur Telescope Maker,(or some
such name) had many articles in the past, dealing with, "Walkk around the
table"(!) lens polishing from glass blanks. I do know that the aircraft
industry has produced and used some incredibly fine particle polishing
compounds...much finer than either red or white Rouge. Polishing materials
measured in Microns. Don Morrill