Diamond Polishing Syringes for CutKit®, Diamond Grit Compound

These are prepolish and polishing compounds!  We have a few options and will probably add more since which polish is 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.

Gem Polish Cheat Sheet

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

8k Diamond is perfect for general prepolish.  This is what we recommend starting with (and include in the CutKit)

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

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, and is what we include in the CutKit.

60k Diamond and higher is used for final polish for stones with the highest quality, finest finish, particularly in competition stones.

Oxide polishes are a bit different - they have some chemical interactions with the surface layer of some gem materials, and can do things other polishes can't.  They 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, such as quartz.

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