Ok, I have to fess up. I have set a piece of labradorite in silver as a pendant. I put it in the tumbler with steel shot, knowing that it was probably a really stupid thing to do. Now the stone is pitted because I shouldn't have done it.
So, what can I do? I guess I'm asking is there a way of restoring the shine by hand, using paper or grits and polish?
I do try really hard not to be so stupid....
Micromesh is your friend. It will take a bit of work, but should do the job - you'll need to work through the grades - start in the middle though - you shouldn't need too much abrasion to smooth it out again.
There's a great product called polygold 2000 which does an excellent job on sorting out dinged stones, but I've only ever been able to buy it from Germany.
And not stupid at all. Labradorite's an odd stone. Theoretically at 6-6.5 on the mohs scale, it should be OK to tumble with steel, but it's structure means that in reality you're taking a chance with anything other than rough cut beads.
Thank you, George. I found a thread on Cookson's forum that I think you'd contributed to that mentioned the polygold 2000 but couldn't find any when I searched. IVe looked at it again and it's not too bad, but I still want to polish it up because it's not good enough! At least this time it wasn't a numpty silversmithing mistake :D
http://www.goldschmiedebedarf.de/product_info.php?products_id=11231&language=en
http://www.diaminor.com/en/192-disque-polygold