Sarah said: "Again, I have no specific experience with regard to ivories (yet), so I'm only discussing general polishing techniques. I suspect Joe Garrett knows more than any of us about polishing ivories. Has he responded yet?" Peace, Sarah, I will now!<G>: I only "sand" to 600 grit and let the buffer do the final scratch removal. That, in itself is a lot of work. To go to finer grits is just plain NON Productive. (kind of like the "diminishing returns" you get when trying to "fine tune" a PSO.) Good buffing compounds are essential. Plus, you need to have TWO Buffing wheels. One that has the "cutting compound" on it and the other with the "polishing compound". In order to understand the differences of buffing compounds, one needs to access a Plastics website or company. They can tell you all you need to know about "buffing/polishing". Also Metal Polishing/Jewelry sites are useful. I have a double ended, (ie shaft sticking out of each side of the electric motor), motor with a sewn 6" buffling wheel, on the left, with the "cutting compound" on it. The right hand wheel is an UN-sewn wheel. Both are cotton. The right wheel has a very fine buffing compound, (stick), that I get from a company in Portland, called MultiCraft. They are a big Plastics company and probably have a web site. The compound color is a pale blue and is very fine. I use it for the final finish on plastic as well. The difference between Plastic and Ivory Buffing, is that you can use a whole lot more pressure on the wheel than with plastic. As for the technique of sanding/polishing first one direcion and then 90degrees for the next grit, is not a good idea, IMHO. It would work just fine on new Ivory, but with the older Ivory, there is invariably "divots". If you sand this way, in order to remove, completely the "divots", you'll wind up with extremely thin Ivory, that will easily chip! When slightly sanding worn Ivory, I use a flat surface with a piece of thick action cloth on it. This will allow the sandpaper to conform to the actual "shape" of the keytop and the "divots" will be evenly sanded with the rest of the surface. This is a real touchy technique that takes finess. I hope all this helps. Best Regards, Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon) Captain, Tool Police Squares Are I
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