SFA: What's the Answer?
Honing Quartz
Trayton Scheeler
Does anyone have experience in honing quartz? We are using a Blick leathering head with snail-lock Velcro backers with a variety of pads and having trouble getting it to turn out.
Allen Miller
Leathering is easy, honing is a bit more tricky. Probably pressure, water volume, and how many steps taken is more important than the type of pad, though for this application a rigid pad is probably more desirable than Velcro. Also may be worth finishing with a honing powder like MB-14 with hogshair or similar if you're not already.
Josh Hartzog
Honing quartz can be challenging. Sometimes finishing with the last passed using a high-grit brush can help get the track marks out. I would see if you can get contacts with someone that has the same machine to see if they have any recipes on how to run it on quartz.
Cameron DeMille
Copper pads with a cutting agent will do it. Your pads glaze and need to be dressed. Using a cutting agent in the slurry with keep the pads clean and open and it will be fine.
Bruce Hart
Cameron DeMille, what cutting agent do you recommend?
Cameron DeMille
We have one called Activator 1 from HyperGrinder for the metals and Activator 2 for the resins, but I use the 1 regardless for like the first 2 cuts.
Mike Peace
We only hone gallons.
Jon Dalrymple
Use a piece of paper to touch off the Leatherhead. So, you can jog down the Leatherhead and once the paper stops moving, that's your z0. After that, try jogging it down. 02 and run.
Defusco MT
We also offer Frankfurts for quartz. Start with 120- & 220-grit, then go to a 120-grit soft flex if you have swirl marks to remove.
John Egee
DO NOT use a leathering head if you want to get a honed finish. All you need to do from a saw-cut edge is pads 50/100/200/400 then stop -- there you go, honed. It will just about match your top. But if you’re using a leathering brush at a lower grit, you’re going to texture your stone because those brushes eat out the resin around the quartz. That’s what gives it the textured feel if you just want a dull finish; a.k.a., all you have to do is stop at your 400 and, if it’s doesn’t match lightly, hit it with your 800. Let me know how it turns out.