Aluminum Oxide Polishing Compounds,TXP and #61 Rapid Polish are our most popular tumble polishing compounds.
What is aluminum oxide polishing compound?
Aluminum oxide has become the most popular polishing compound for tumble polishing and most other gemstone work. There are two reasons for this:
1) Aluminum oxide is highly effective for polishing agate, jasper, quartz, petrified wood, and most other materials that can be polished in a tumble polisher.
2) Aluminum oxide polishing compound is inexpensive—less than half the price of other commonly used polishing compounds, such as cerium oxide and tin oxide.
Aluminum oxide has the same chemical composition as corundum (the mineral from which ruby and sapphire are derived). It also has a Mohs hardness of 9.
We sell two different aluminum oxide polishing compounds: TXP and #61 Rapid Polish. The difference between them is the particle size. We will explain these two polishing compounds below.
We use TXP aluminum oxide polishing compound for almost all of our rotary and vibratory polishing. It is highly effective and significantly less expensive than many other polishing compounds.
What is TXP polishing compound?
TXP is our best-selling tumble polish and is used in almost all tumble polishing. We use it in both rotary and vibratory polishers. We use it for the following reasons: 1) performance; 2) price; and 3) particle size.
What is #61 Rapid Polish?
Our second-best-selling gemstone polish is #61 Rapid Polish. Its particle size distribution is concentrated around 0.3 microns. It can be used in rotary polishers, but is primarily used in vibratory polishers.
This fine particle size allows it to produce a brighter shine than TXP on some materials. Many people use 1000-grit sandpaper before using Rapid Polish, but we transition directly to Rapid Polish from 500 or 600 grit with excellent results.
How Much To Use?
We use #61 Rapid Polish in our Thumler’s UltraVibe UV-10. We also use it in our Lot-o-Tumbler. In these tumblers we add 1/2 level tablespoon per pound of rock (or per pound of rock + media). We sometimes add a little more than 1/2 tablespoon when tumbling brittle materials such as obsidian, glass, mookaite, topaz, etc. in vibratory. The goal is to make a thicker slurry that will cushion the rocks and produce a bit of adhesion between them.
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