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 Post subject: Faceting amber.
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2020 6:12 pm 
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Joined: Sun Apr 01, 2018 3:30 pm
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Location: orlando, florida , USA
Hello friends, im cutting my first piece of amber and have gotten to the polishing stage and this is where im having some trouble. I cut the stone with a 3000 grit plated lap which worked well and even left a polished surface except for scratches. I then tried to further polish it with al. oxide as the vargas book suggests, this didnt work, i then tried 50k diamond on a batt, this didnt give me a polished facet either .
What have you guys who have cut this material used for polishing it?


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 Post subject: Re: Faceting amber.
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2020 8:13 pm 
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Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:58 pm
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Location: San Marcos, CA
Gearloose Lightside, acrylic, phenolic laps with cerium. But you first must address your comment of it left a polished surface but with scratches. No diamond and alot of water. Amber melts if to dry and diamond will just roll under the lap which is also what happened with AO, You need a relatively soft lap for polishing Amber. I have used flat felt on a masterlap with French polish aka also a cerium oxide. But you have to address the scratching left behind by the cutting laps first. I have a very well worn 1200 Crystallite Standard diamond lap I use for a prepolish. Try and find a place on the lap where the surface has a uniform surface no visible scratching.
Hope that helps some.

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 Post subject: Re: Faceting amber.
PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2020 8:37 pm 
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Location: orlando, florida , USA
Thanks , ill try again tommorrow with some of your suggestions, it sure is challenge to polish. I dont have the lightside lap but maybe i can improvise .


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 Post subject: Re: Faceting amber.
PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2020 2:04 pm 
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Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2015 8:41 am
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Location: Germany
I have not tried it myself but know of someone who prepared a Metal lap by glueing a non woven synthetic fabric on it an then applied bee wax. Flattened the surface and then used cerium oxide.
Tricky was the shrinking of the wax, when cooling.


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 Post subject: Re: Faceting amber.
PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2020 3:38 am 
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Location: South Africa
Here is a link to a description of how to make a wax lap. http://ctminsoc.org.za/articles/facetip-%E2%80%93-polishing-really-troublesome-facets


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