Polishing Sticks for CutKit, Diamond and Oxides by Gearloose

These are prepolish and polishing compounds!  We have a few options and will probably add more since which polishbis best depends a lot on laps, materials and techniques.

The compound syringes are the most economical option--they can be applied directly to a lap without any extender, or used with oil.

Compounds from from Gearloose are generally considered the gold standard.  They last longer and work with water or oil as an extender/dispersant.

8k and 60k diamond are perfect for general prepolish and polish respectively.  These are the two grits included in the kit.

3k is ideal for quick prepolish of rubies and sapphires, especially nice for big stones.

30k diamond (ie 0.5 micron, sometimes called 50k depending who you ask) is a more aggressive final polish, moving facets a bit more while still leaving a great finish, this is my own preference for most stones.

13k polycrystalline gives a commercial polish (you can still catch light on the scratches but it's a good finish) and ideal for prepolishing moissanites which sometimes want to orange peel at 8k.

14k Monocrystalline is very similar to 13k.  This is a common international standard polish for commercial cutting, very fast and easy.

Oxide polishes are used with a small amount of water.  They are often used with corian or other plastic laps--one trick is to use a CD with a surface fogged by acetone.  I have not tried this myself but they say it works.

Chrome oxide is used for some softer gems, and is particularly favored for beryl.

Cerium oxide is a magic bullet for most silicates.

Zirconium oxide is considered especially great for quartz polishing, even better than cerium.