Polishing Ivory

[Joseph Garrett]

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