"Phil DeMayo" wrote in message
...
On Nov 26, 10:56?pm, "Mr. Jaggers" lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com
wrote:

All quite accurate, but it raises another question: ?What kind of
"polishing
cloth" would be abrasive enough to cut grooves into the hardened die
steel?
Crocus cloth comes to mind, but I really have no idea whether something
like
that is used. ?Do you?

James

When compared to the minerals that might be used in polishing
compounds, steel isn't all that hard.

The most common abrasive would probably be corundum (aluminum oxide)
which has a Mohs scale hardness of 9 (second only to diamond at 10).
The average woman probably has some corundum in her purse (an emery
board). You might have some aluminum oxide sandpaper in your workshop.

In addition to emery, the corundum family includes sapphires and
rubies.

I have a jar of ruby powder somewhere around here that I used to
polish some minerals and gemstones that I cut (mostly Opals and
Mexican Fire Opals). I also used a few different grades of diamond
compound on harder minerals.

- But how are these abrasives "delivered" to the die steel? Are they in a
paste rubbed on with a rag, or what? And don't they (or at least shouldn't
they) progress through a series of ever-finer abrasives to smooth out the
scoring caused by the one before? I'm thinking it's like grinding a mirror
for a telescope, is there an analogy there?

James