meggied90 shared a post
pxlmo.com
This is a rutilated quartz. I am actually not very happy with my cutting of this stone, my meetpoints were not very accurate and I accidentally knocked it off the dop once, making my alignment slightly off. #lapidary #gemstones

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?

  • Dyntrall@lemmy.world
    4·
    9 months ago

    Quartz is definitely a bastard. The only thing that helped me was getting hold of a couple of lightning laps - https://lightninglap.com/ - the 3k resin bonded lap polishes like an 8k, and then a CeOx resin polishing lap from them.

    I’ve never figured out how to get a satisfying polish with anything I have to apply to a lap, it just becomes scratch city.

    Stone looks lovely though!

    • meggied90OP
      2·
      9 months ago

      Thank you! I think I will try the Lightning Lap 3k, general consensus from everyone here is that 3k makes a difference.

      I will say that the CeOx on Darkside is quite good, but it can’t totally make up for a shit prepolish. If I can set it up for success with a better prepolish I think I’ll be much happier with my process. Hopefully LL saves the day!

      • Dyntrall@lemmy.world
        3·
        9 months ago

        I’ve been so impressed with the LL pads that, outside of bonded cutting disks, I don’t use anything else. Your milage may vary, though!