Plastics Unaffected by Steel Mirror Polishing

[gciriani]

I'm looking for a polymer to mask stainless steel jewelry, so that the steel can be mirror-polished according to a certain design.

We are thinking of plastic material, because harder materials would micro-scratch the steel, which is not allowed. The polymer has to be used more than once, so that the process is affordable. It has also to be thick not more than 0.3 mm, otherwise the mirror-polishing opertion would leave a shadow effect around the contours of the pattern. Mirror polishing is done with wheels of fabric with tangential speed around 1000 m/min, and using waxy products that contain Al2O3 as abrasive. It heats the metal enough to soften the peaks on the surface and spreads them around to create the mirror effect.

Is there any polymer that would resist this type of abrasion for a few times before being thrown away?

 

[rnd2]

Re-useable polymers are thermo-plastic. They have poor thermal conduction and lower melting points than ss and will melt and spread to the area requiring polishing so benefits would be dubious. What you might investigate is an ablative material such as painters cellulose paper masking tape or treat the part requiring protection first by coating with a cheap ceramic.