Faceting Sequencing

2 Comments / Beginner Stuff, Facet Sequencing / By

This just in from the mail bag:

Please advise the best sequence for cutting and polishing.

Should one do all of the cutting, pre-polishing and polishing 
on each facet row before moving on to the next row or polish in 
reverse order once the culet is pre-polished?

An early reply would be appreciated as I am at the point where 
I can use either to finish a stone that I am currently working on.

Thank you for maintaining your very helpful web site and 
providing such helpful content.

Keeth Miller

Thanks for your nice comments!

Sequencing is one of the most common questions – and one of the more important things in terms of enjoyment and efficiency.

You wouldn’t want to complete the cutting, pre-polishing, and polishing on each row – and then do all those steps on the subsequent row(s). This would have the edges of your nice polished facets getting gouged by the roughness of the cutting lap. This effect will be exacerbated by the way polished surfaces tend to demonstrate a greater hardness and a tendency to stick together, or “scale”.

You’d also be doing lots of lap changing…

Best to do all of each step on the stone and then shift to the next step.

The exception to this is when using a double-charged lap – both pre-polish and polish on one lap. Then, you do the pre-polish step; clean the stone; and do the polish step without making any machine changes. This can be faster, but requires some additional handling skills and care.

I recommend getting proficient at doing all of each grit, one at a time, first.

I hope this helps!

2 thoughts on “Faceting Sequencing”

  1. Keeth Miller

    Thank you for the quick and helpful response relative to proper sequencing.

    I am left with one question.

    After doing all rows and finishing pre-polish of the culet or crown, should I do the polishing from top-down or bottom up?

    Keeth Miller

    1. John Bailey

      Hi, Keeth,

      Usually, we recommend cutting (away) FROM the girdle and polishing TOWARD the girdle.

      There are various reasons for this:

      1. As we cut and pre-polish, we’re going to accumulate errors, and we want the final step to push the errors back toward the girdle where they are less apparent.

      2. If you look at the potential for installing scratches on already-polished facets, this strategy also minimizes that.

      3. If we have a problem with a stone – a bad transfer or whatever may cause making the meets to be problematic – you may notice that the girdle facets on most designs are smaller than the mains. So, it’s not only easier to hide errors at the girdle, but it’s also easier to manipulate meets on a smaller facet than a larger one.

      Hope this helps!

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