Cold working by hand

[haleybach]

Ok.
First off. I have a local studio with an excellent cold shop, so most of the time I just go there to finish things.
However I would like to be able to do by hand those things that are done between firings.

For example, flip and fire where you first fire face down then flip and fire again to get a smooth gloss top. After the first firing I have been going in to the local studio to sand blast the surface before the next firing. It works perfectly to prevent devit but having to go in to do that step often becomes a hurdle. I have to have time when the studio cold shop is open for use.

Same thing with pattern bars. I have a lovely tile saw. I have always sand blasted pattern bars (or anything else) after cutting on tile saw.

Is there a way to achieve the same, or a similar result by hand?
I'm thinking hit it with 120 diamond hand pad, maybe?

Also, my daughter has been experimenting with open face casting. She is looking to clean up/smooth out spots on curved or textured surfaces. What is the best way to do that?

I am looking at His Glassworks site and it looks like there are two ways to work by hand, grits or hand pads.
Is it that one is better for some things and the other for other things? Or is it just preference ?

With the hand pads I see an array of choices that I'm not sure how they work together.
3M Diamond hand pads- thick firm backing.
3M Diamond handipads- smaller and on a more flexable back (?)
Smoothing hand blocks- on a thick backing, not sure if it is firm or not.
Smoothing handipads- smaller and I think on the same backing as the diamond handipads.

And then there are the silicon carbide grits and the cerium polish.

Oh and the cerium impregnated polishing hand pad.

All of the above come in various grits.

How do these work together? Or do you pick one and use it start to finish?
The smoothing items are described as finishing products, so do you use them after the diamond pads? What I'm stuck on is the grit size. Since the smoothing pads start at 100.

So I guess,
#1 what would be a good sequence for just cleaning up after a tile saw cut or face down firing?
#2 what would be a good way to hand work the cast tiles?
#3 in general, if you were going to cold work by hand, what is the order of use with the various hand/handi pads? or, how do the 'finishing' handipads work?

[JestersBaubles]

I mostly coldwork edges (not a lot of flat surfaces, except on my lap grinder), but in general you start with a lower number and work your way to a higher number. So... start w/70 or 120, then go to the next higher number, and the next... The smaller numbers remove more material, but leave more scratches.

Check out the book, "Coldworking without Machines" by Paul Tarlow.

Dana W.

[Valerie Adams]

I was taught that diamonds leave scratches but silicon carbide does not.