Product Application Chart
These recommendations provide starting points for using the various Gearloose lap products.
They are based on many years of experience and reports from a wide variety of faceters, from beginners to competition and production cutters, as well as information shared throughout the faceting community.
Every cutter uses a different technique. Lap speed, pressure, wetness, sweeping rate, diamond concentration and the individual stone can all affect the result. These recommendations should therefore be treated as starting points rather than absolute rules.
The Briefest Summary
After cutting on a 600-grit lap:
Prepolish
3000 or 8000 PANDIMONIUM® diamond on Zinc Plus™
or
3000 or 8000 PANDIMONIUM® diamond on BATT™
Zinc Plus™ produces a very fast prepolish. 3000 PANDIMONIUM® diamond on Zinc Plus™ is a favorite here at Gearloose, while 8000 diamond provides a finer prepolish.
For some cutters, Zinc Plus™ can prepolish almost too quickly. BATT™ provides a somewhat more controlled alternative and works very well with either 3000 or 8000 diamond.
Both are excellent systems — the best choice depends on the stone and how aggressively you like to prepolish.
Polish
For polishing, the best lap and polish combination depends on the gemstone.
Quartz-family stones: Cerium Oxide BATTSTIK™ on Darkside™ or Creamway™ with water are excellent starting points.
Stones best polished with diamond: 60K or 100K PANDIMONIUM® diamond on BATT™ are excellent general starting points.
See the chart below for additional recommended combinations and gemstone examples.
Product Application Chart
| Product | Use / Starting Points |
|---|---|
| BATT™ | Cut / Prepolish / Polish — Diamond. Ruby, sapphire, garnet and spinel. A versatile choice for stones that polish well with PANDIMONIUM® diamond. Generally not our first choice for quartz-family stones. |
| BA5T™ | Prepolish / Polish — Diamond. Ruby, sapphire, garnet, spinel and other stones that respond well to diamond. Useful when very flat facets and sharp meets are desired. |
| Zinc Plus™ | Prepolish — Diamond. A broad range of medium-to-hard gemstones. 3000 or 8000 PANDIMONIUM® diamond are excellent starting points; 3000 is our favorite for a fast prepolish. |
| Greenway™ | Polish — Water only. Emerald, beryl, aquamarine, tourmaline and feldspars such as sunstone. Chrome oxide is incorporated into the lap. |
| Darkside™ | Polish — Diamond / Oxide. Extremely versatile. Quartz-family stones with Cerium Oxide BATTSTIK™; beryl and garnet with Chrome Oxide BATTSTIK™; peridot and tourmaline with Alumina A Oxide BATTSTIK™ are good starting points. |
| MATRIX™ | Polish — Diamond / Oxide. Particularly effective with diamond for flat, well-defined facets. Garnet also responds very well to Alumina A Oxide BATTSTIK™. |
| DIAMAX™ | Polish — Diamond / Oxide. Especially effective on harder materials such as sapphire, LuAG and moissanite. A light water mist can work particularly well when polishing moissanite with diamond. |
| Lightside™ | Polish — Diamond / Oxide. Particularly useful for softer and more heat-sensitive materials such as diopside, fluorite, apatite and rhodochrosite. |
| Creamway™ | Polish — Water only. Quartz-family materials including quartz, amethyst, citrine, prasiolite and smoky quartz. Zirconium oxide is incorporated into the lap. |
These Are Starting Points
The gemstone examples in this chart are examples, not limitations.
No application chart can account for every gemstone, every piece of rough or every faceter's technique. Two stones of the same species can sometimes behave differently, and relatively small changes in speed, pressure, lubricant or polish concentration can change the result.
We encourage experimentation.
Many of the combinations that faceters routinely use today were discovered because someone tried a different lap, polish or technique and found that it worked exceptionally well.
Use this chart as a place to start, then adjust as needed for the stone in front of you.