[Jewelry making - Article 00204] - Re: [Orchid] Removing Stone Scratches

[Wayne Emery]

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Brian,

    If the stone is a faceted one, the answer is a resounding "NO!". The
    facets are flat, and I mean REALLY flat. Putting a wheel to them
    will ruin the surface and probably increase the damage. A simple
    re-polish of a facet, even a table, is very inexpensive. And I've
    yet to see a native cut stone under 10X that didn't have some
    "cat-whiskers" here and there or much worse. In fact, most of them
    are painful to look at. The human eye can detect "non-flatness" on a
    plane and polished surface that is less then 1/2 a wavelength of
    light out of whack. You can't come close to that with a Foredom. 

    Polishing of a gemstone is an art unto itself, at the highest levels
    of quality, and CAN be demanding of technique and machine.....but
    usually it's pretty straightforward with the newer laps recently
    developed and the proper use of charging abrasives (diamond). 

    The problem I encountered on the learning curve many years ago is
    that a professional cutter or hobbyist, using modern techniques, is
    almost forced to re-do the whole crown, I.e., every facet, because
    when just one is done it looks so much better than the others that
    it stands out. Typically, overseas cutters use 8000-14000 grit
    diamond on a tin lap to polish sapphire. Here we routinely use
    50,000 to 100,000 grit, and sometimes 200,000 on a ceramic lap. The
    ceramic lap is much harder than tin and gives a crispness to the
    facet edges (and accompanying brilliance) that has to be seen to be
    appreciated. Sometimes, I will kiss the facets with a slight touch
    of alumina to further give the facet a "wet" look. This sounds
    great, and it is, for a sapphire (natural or synthetic) that I cut
    from scratch, but if I re-polish a single facet on the crown of a
    commercially cut sapphire, oh boy! Does NOT match the rest of the
    stone! So, I routinely use 14,000 grit on the repair or re-polish of
    commercially cut material, just so it matches the rest of the stone.
    Kinda sad, huh? 

Wayne
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