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How to tumble polish manganese bronze

December 17, 2009

We have a customer who is polishing manganese bronze rings and has recently bought a tumbler to try and speed up the process. Previously, he was buffing with a reddish brown compound (I presume something like tripoli but he didn't know exactly what it was called) and then polishing with a blue compound (something like blue dialux or blue rouge but again he didn't know the name of the product). This was giving him good results but is very slow and tedious.

He has recently bought a small vibratory tumbler (no flow-through system but only small batches) and has some ceramic media (medium cut) and stainless steel shot for burnishing with burnishing compound but is not getting the same kind of results as from the buffing.

What recommendations would you have for this fellow on both media and compound. I feel that he should be able to get a finish using the media he has with an appropriate cutting and polishing compound. We would appreciate some advice on this please. Andrew Lane
Supplier of tumblers - Glen Innes NSW Australia

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First of all the media he is using will not get the same results as he was getting from the wheel system. The S.S. media you described is burnishing media. That will get reflective finish but not necessarily smooth. For a smooth finish, there are a couple of ways to go; however, I always like dry organic processes. These take longer than wet systems but get much superior results.

AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
December 21, 2009