Intro to polishing with diamond

[jude]

I have an Ultra Tec V5 DAD and have finished 6 quartz stones in a standard brilliant cut,

using for polishing cerium oxide and Gearloose Darkside and BA5T polishing laps.

I would like now to start cutting YAG, Laser Glass, and CZ, using diamond polish, and have a set of 7 syringes of diamond paste, 0.25 to 5 micron.

I’m a little short on information as to how to proceed (the UT manual only covers the absolute BASICS).

Don’t I need a tin lap for each grade of diamond?

It seems to me that once used with say, 5 micron diamond, a lap could never be used with anything of smaller size, as SOME diamond would remain stuck in the lap surface….

Also, I’m still a little fuzzy on precisely how to do a step cut – again, the UT manual only covers the 57-facet standard brilliant.

[Alan Balmer]

You’re quite right that you can never go to a finer grit on a used lap. However, you don’t need 7 sizes of diamond. The 0.25 micron is probably a good polishing grade, and the 5 micron, is about right for most prepolish. I stopped using pastes and powder when Gearloose came out with the Diastiks, and now use the newer Pandimonium. For suggestions, take a look at https://gearloose.co/product-charts/

[brellan217]

So, the trick with the step cut is to measure in my opinion. I like to use a rule of thumb of 37.5%, 37.5% and 25% for a three step stone.

I’m other words, if the distance from the culet to the girdle is 4mm I divide that distance up for 1.5mm, 1.5mm and 1mm for each step. I cut my first step, to the 1.5mm measurement and then keep it level around the stone. It’s kind of like leveling the girdle to be honest.

Second step is another 1.5mm and third step (closest to the girdle) for 1mm. I do a similar method on the crown, but the step closest to the table is my most narrow step.

I agree with Alan, by the way. I use diastiks/pandamonium almost exclusively. I keep Crystallite laps for 260 and 600. I rarely use 260 though.

I did two step cut asscher gems this week. I was trying to get you a pic of the steps, but I’m telling you I couldn’t get a good pic to save me. I’ll attach the emerald I did. The pic showed my steps slightly better than the aquamarine. I hope gifs work🤞. I did both stones in this design http://dansstarrgems.com/Design-Chermaign.html

Hope this helps you with cutting step cuts. Once you do it a few times it becomes rote, almost redundant. You’ll get it after a couple tries.

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[jude]

Thanks Allan. I’ll look into those Gearloose items asap. Have a lot respect for the guy who runs that outfit. , Not only a lot of innovative products, but when I had an issue with one of his laps, and he called me, hand-picked a replacement off the line and mailed it to me, and then personally followed up!

[jude]

Ok Brellan, great. It seems less intimidating now. I like the cut you linked, as a standard step cut looked a little too simple.

I downloaded that instruction set, and blew up your GIF until it was grainy, and from what I could see, it sure looked snappy!

And about the right size for the depth of color of the material..

[Author]

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