On Jun 14, 6:18*pm, Al Balmer wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:30:29 -0700, Andrew Falanga

wrote:
Hi,

Wow, has it been a long time since I've posted to this NG. *My wife
and I are currently cutting a few topaz stones for a client and these
topaz are unlike anything we've ever seen. *They are taking a polish
in a most difficult manner and this is forcing us to consider some
alternative polishing compounds. *I've found a company on-line selling
something called Super Blue Polish. *They claim it is quite the
polishing compound. *I was hoping someone here might have used this
compound because I've never heard of it. *Is it as good as they say?

Never used Super Blue Polish, but Rob Kulakofsky from ColorWright
speaks well of it, and I respect his opinion.http://www.facetingaccessories.com/polishes.shtml

What sort of cutting? Faceting, cabs, carving? If faceting, do you
have the problem everywhere, or just some facets? If cabbing or
carving, is the problem only in certain spots? You can guess that I'm
thinking about the cleavage plane, which is generally hard to polish.

--
Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ

I think Al's nailed it - Topaz has perfect cleavage in the basal
direction, which makes it difficult to polish and dangerous to set.
Orienting the rough is critical; you need to get the cleavage plane
perpendicular to the top of the stone, so you're polishing across it,
and don't have that plane running across the surface, which will never
polish right and can cause a big piece to fall off (usually when
you're almost done). I don't think the particular polishing compound
makes as much difference as getting the stone positioned right in the
first place.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com