In the bad old days, one cut facets on a 600 mesh lap, followed by a 1200 mesh lap and then went on to polish. The 1200 mesh leaves quite deep scratches, and on some material produces ‘orange peel’, a mottled surface with alternating rough and smooth patches. This makes polishing tedious. A pre-polishing step, with 3000 mesh or 8000 mesh diamond gets rid of the scratches and any orange peel. You might think the additional step adds time to the process, but in practice it speeds it up beca...


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