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How to Polish Apache Tears With Sandpaper

Apache tears are a type of obsidian. They are dark black, and when polished correctly, take on a deep, brilliant sheen. You can polish Apache tears in a rock polisher, but because obsidian is an igneous rock, it is extremely hard to use other rocks to polish it, as most rock polishers do. For this reason, many people prefer to sand down their Apache tears with sandpaper. While this process is not particularly difficult, it is extremely time-consuming and can be tedious. However, when you are done, the beauty of your finished stone will far and away make all your hard work worthwhile.

Things You'll Need

Sandpaper (grits from 100 to 600)
Leather gloves
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Cut the sandpaper into 2-inch squares. You are going to use a lot of them, so cut about 10 squares of each grit.
- 2
  Start sanding the Apache tear with the 100-grit sandpaper. You should hold the rock in one hand and a small square of sandpaper in the other. Start sanding using a circular motion. It will take a lot of time, but you will start to see the sandpaper wearing away at the bumps and crevices on the Apache tear. Continue with the 100-grit sandpaper until you have a relatively smooth surface on all sides of the stone. At this point, it will not be shiny.
- 3
  Progress to finer grits of sandpaper. Once you have gotten the surface fairly smooth, use a finer grit of sandpaper---around 220-grit . Use the same sanding process. You will notice that the surface of the stone is not only getting smoother, but it is developing a sheen. As it does, move on to a 400-grit sandpaper.
- 4
  Finish off the Apache tear with your 600-grit sandpaper. This fine grit will enable you to polish the obsidian to glass-like smoothness. Keep sanding until the stone is perfectly smooth to the touch and reflects the light.

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