How do you polish agates

They are producing high-quality products for a great price. The method for using a bandsaw and table saw to slice agate is the same and produces equally good results. Follow these steps:. Recommended: If you are looking for buying a slab saw check out this band saw Amazon link made by Gryphon Corporation. The excellent performance of this saw is guaranteed by the diamond. But to be honest, if you are not going to cut rocks regularly, this saw is unnecessarily expensive for you and I recommend you use other, cheaper options for cutting rocks like dremels or slab saws.

TIP: Dremel is an amazing tool not just for cutting rocks but for rock polishing too. And the great news is that these tools are not too expensive.

Check out the reviews of the best dremels for rock polishing in the article below:. Using an electric rock tumbler for agates is extremely effective for removing the outer layers from the rough stones and polishing the rocks to bring out the best in their patterns and colors.

Carbide grinding powder and water is added to the tumbler along with the rocks, and this helps to grind away the rough outer layer of the agate. The grinding powder comes in various grits — coarse , medium, fine and polished.

Agates are usually run through a rock tumbler for 7 days with each grit of grinding powder , but depending on the finish you are after, they can be tumbled for a shorter or longer period. This still means that tumbling and polishing agates can take weeks!

Tumbling is usually done after the rock is trimmed and cut. However, when you want to cut many, even slices from a piece of agate, tumble the rough stone with polishing powder before you cut it. This will decrease the amount of polishing you need to do after cutting. Polishing agate manually , using sandpaper and powdered polish is very laborious and time-consuming because of how hard the rock is.

It is an okay method if you only have a few agates you want to shape and polish, but if you have many, it is simpler to use a tumbler. TIP: If you are interested in buying a rock tumbler check out my recommendation for the best rock tumblers for the beginners and hobbyists in the article below:. Harder stones are the best candidates for polishing. Although some may find the white noise of the rock tumbler relaxing; others may not.

A garage or shop would be ideal. Add coarse grit to the stones in the barrel. Refer to Tumbling Compound Chart for how much grit to add, which is dependent on the size of your rock tumbler. Method 3. Clean each stone with warm water, dish soap, and a toothbrush.

Fill a cup with warm water and squeeze in a drop of dish soap. Stir the mixture so it suds up. Then, dip the toothbrush in and scrub each rock thoroughly.

Pay attention to these areas and try to push the bristles into them for a thorough clean. Lay grit sandpaper on a flat surface. A flat and stable tabletop is a good surface to work on. Take a piece of sandpaper at least 3 in 7. Then lay the sandpaper flat on top of it.

You can also use a Dremel tool to polish the rocks. Make sure you attach a polishing bit, because using a coarse bit will grind the rock down too much. Add a drop of water to the sandpaper. Too much water is better than not enough.

Grind the stone on the sandpaper until the surface grit rubs away. Pick any side to start on. Switch to a different side when the previous section smooths out. Work around the whole rock with the same technique. If the water dries up at any point, add more. The coarse-grit only works off the rough edges. Rinse the stone off in between grinding stages. Run the stone under the faucet to remove any debris and sanding material.

Keep it wet for the sanding process. Repeat the process with , , and grit sandpaper. Work your way up to finer-grit sandpaper to gradually polish the stone. Use the same technique for each grit. Rinse the stone off and grind each side until it smooths out. As you reach finer grits, the stone will shine a bit more.

Rub the stone with powdered polish. Apply some powdered polish to a rag. Then rub each side of the stone until it shines. Rinse it one last time and dry it with a clean rag. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Submit a Tip All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. Related wikiHows How to. How to. More References 9. Expect the polishing process to take a few hours, as agates are extremely hard rocks.

Load grit sandpaper onto a sanding wheel and sand it until the slice takes the finished shape and form that you want it to. Dip the agate in water to cleanse it from sanding ash.

Load grit sandpaper onto a sanding wheel. Turn the wheel on and rub the agate slice back and forth, all over the exposed surface of the agate until the rough marks from the grit sandpaper are gone.

Turn off the sander and place the agate in a clean bowl of water. Load grit sandpaper onto the sanding wheel and rub the agate back and forth, removing scratches from the grit paper.