Faceting

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Quartz is really challenging - prepolish tips? (pxlmo.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I feel like the garnet I cut first lulled me into a false sense of security. I did myself no favors picking a more complex cut, either. Quartz is ANNOYING!

The video mercifully does not show it, but my meetpoints are absolute trash on this stone. I used way too much force and popped it off the dop when polishing my pavilion, so my girdle and my crown don't quite align either.

I struggled heavily with the prepolish step, which in turn led to my polish taking ages. I'm currently using a Zinc+ with 8k Pandimonium which was dreamy on my garnet but the quartz was less enthusiastic about it. Am I just underestimating quartz? What do you guys use for prepolishing?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From my own experience, it’s the prepolish to polish step that give so much trouble with quartz. I usually get around this by doing a very clean 3k grit pre-polishand then go straight to polishing. Ideally I’d like to use a good 8k prepolish but with quartz being so finicky in regards to contamination and scratching, I get better results without it.

If I want to do quartz right, and get clean flat razor-sharp facets, this is what I do. I have an old solid steel crystalite lap that is 3k Diamond and pretty worn. Does an excellent prepolish. Then I go straight to 50k Diamond powder on a gear loose BA5T lap. For the best way to charge the lap, I’d watch videos on how Roger Dery does it. It’s basically the same technique I use and it works every time, albeit it’s expensive.

If you want a way that’s quick, cheap, and VERY easy, go directly from 3000 grit (steel topper lap works fine here) pre-polish to a cerium oxide Mylar pad (spectra or similar). Mylar pads are known for facet rounding but you can minimized this a great deal with very light pressure.

Good luck!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh man, I could use some good videos on how to charge laps, I am so concerned I'm probably overdoing it when I do mine. I will check him out!

Universal consensus is that I need a 3k lap, so I guess I'll be buying one soon! Thanks for the advice! 🙏