Wheel Sponge

Old Style Manual Marble Polishing Methods

I began this work many decades ago when marble edges were polished by hand. Today such work is done entirely by machine but there are still circumstances where hand polishing would be a useful skill to know. To obtain the best in marble polishing and marble products call marble Atlanta.

 

Traditionally edge polishing was considered a separate semi-skilled trade. These polishers spent their whole working day rubbing hundreds of feet of marble edges and would develop strange physical deformities, bulging shoulder muscles and a thumb that would curve back and touch their own wrist were the most common.

 

The entire process would begin when the edges to polish were identified on numerous marble slabs, then the marble was placed on long benches and their patterns were matched. They marked the exposed edges that required polishing.

 

One at a time each slab would be propped upright against a bench with the edge to be polished uppermost. A piece of rag, some water and a rag is all you will need to clean the marble surface.

 

The work was carried out using various grades of carborundum stone blocks and to start would be a coarse 60 or 80 grit stone. Due to the deep wheel marks saw blades can leave in the surface of the marble, this is the most time-consuming step in the process. The stone would be dipped into the water and then rubbed evenly up and down the edge of the slab always keeping a heavy and steady pressure on. The coarse corners of the marble can be rubbed off to create extremely small flat corner referred to as arris. For company that specializes in polishing all types of marble get a hold of marble polishing Atlanta.

 

Waving the rag above the marble while it dried afforded the ability to check on the progress. This is still the best way of drying large areas of wet stone by the way!

 

On the removal of scratches that are deep and other wheels marks with the 60 grit, the second stone with grit 120, which is a bit finer than the previous stone is used. This stone would be used until all of the scratches from the previous grit had been removed completely and replaced by a new layer of finer scratches.

 

Polishing marble is in fact the process of wearing down the surface with finer and finer scratches until the scratches are no longer visible to the naked eye!

 

This process continues through 6 different grits to smooth it. The final stone used was a very fine block made by the polishers themselves from ultra fine carborundum dust and marble glue, and strangely called snake!

 

The marble isn't polished to a high degree yet. The finish on it is smoothly honed. The final stage is achieved with a hard block of felt and a cocktail of various polishing powders, the most commonly used were putty powder, pumice powder and oxalic acid. All or just one of these can be used wet or slightly damp to make the final gloss look fantastic.

 

The most obvious advantage of hand polishing is that this process does not create clouds of dust, as the work is carried out wet, This means that unlike dry machine polishing, there was little serious health risk to the polishers. Hand polishing generally produced a better finish than machine polishing will give you.

 

However, hand polishing is a seriously slow and laborious process. Shortly after the advent of machine edge polishing, hand polishing skills slowly disappeared.

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