Oh, and one last observation on the chipping was that I took a metal vernier to the stone width during the polishing of the girdle. I was using an eye loupe to make the measurement in an effort to avoid scratching the stone and saw the corner chips before the tool reached the stone.
I adjusted the jaws to size, trying to steer clear of that part of the girdle that I hoped to save and as soon as the metal touched the stone corners I could hear this aweful creaking/grinding sound as if the stone were begging for mercy and I did create several chips taking those measurements.
The angles are so sharp there that the corners are just fragile. So to anyone reading this thread and is interested in submitting a stone to the novice single stone competition for this year, be wary of this issue. The design itself is as it stated in the contest layout, deceptively simple but makes you focus on the basic foundation an ameture needs to master to cut a stone well. I have only cut about a half dozen stones myself and have not yet even completed my dry run stone but I wish we had just a few more facets included in the design to better make it pop. That said, the design is still fun to cut and I’m learning a lot from working on it. Good luck to anyone entering their own stones.