Duncan Miller

Polishing soft gem materials, Mohs’s hardness 5 and less, and facets near the cleavage of some harder materials can be very difficult with commonly used polishing laps. Some years ago, Gearloose Lapidary (www.gearloose.co) introduced the Lightside™ lap, intended specifically for polishing soft materials. It is a ‘reduced-friction’ composite lap, used with diamond or oxide slurry to produce flat facets without significant edge rounding. It is described as a ‘durable, p...


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