Good afternoon rock hunters,
For polishing opal I have a set of wheels, go to the 3000 wheel at the end before using optical quality (pink) cerium oxide on a leather lap for the final polish. This works well including with ironstone boulder opal but I find with the more porous boulder material the oxide settles in the stone and defies a good polish.
At the recent Townsville annual gem club show diamond spray was recommended.. I got some but have yet to use it. I presume a light spray on the leather lap but I would be interested to know what others have used for the more porous stone to get a good polish.
I also have tin oxide which may be better on the porous material than the pink.
Appreciative of any thoughts on the topic.
Yours tropically, Harry