All have their fans and detractors, or people who simply are not satisfied with them. The entire reason for working on these is that no particular lap is universally 'The One'. Well, it appears I have been doomed to do that anyway, for some time. I can understand making a decent, low cost pre-polish lap, (at least lower than the sintered or ceramic laps), but another polish lap would probably just confuse people. If the ceramic lap has all of the drawbacks that you've listed, (and no apparent upsides), then why make something to emulate it? Is this going to be a pre-polish or a polish lap? I can understand making a decent, low cost pre-polish lap, (at least lower than the sintered or ceramic laps), but another polish lap would probably just confuse people. Just a teaser: Jon Rolfe and I have prototyped a lap to replace the ceramic that has most of the upsides of the lap and none of the downsides. I no longer use, nor do I recommend a ceramic lap. The sharp meets also can chip when polishing, which is the primary cause of scratches in polishing with these. The downside of the sharp meets is that these succumb to stress easily, thus the faceted gems should not be used in jewelry. These laps produce a very flat facet and very sharp meets. Art Thiel of Ann Arbor, Michigan and David Miller of Flint, Michigan produced these, which used silicate minerals as the primary constituents.Ĭeramic laps need to be used stationary or at very low rpms or they will scratch. These laps are composed mainly of alumina.īefore that, reground ceramic computer memory disks were used. The 'Falcon' ceramic lap was produced originally by Art Kalinski of Hamtramck, Michigan and later sold to Graves.

to flat lap cast iron back in the mid-1950's. The first ceramic laps were invented in Chicago, Ill. I wrote an article on the use and history of the ceramic lap for Gems and Minerals magazine in 1985. Master Diamond Cutter Lapidary to the ForumĪ non-profit Forum for the exchange of gemological ideas Gemologist, Master Goldsmith, Forsberg, FGA Gemologist, Geologist, Jewelry Scarani, IGI, GG LaShawn Bauer's Guide to Jewelry Appraising Identifying Gems w ⁄o Instruments,W.Wm Hanneman, PhD Sterling and Retated Topics including valuation and Alphabetical List: Books on Gems, Minerals, Jewelry,

10-4 45 vendors, Many with native Arizona specimens. October 16-17-SEDONA, ARIZONA: Annual show Sedona Gem and Mineral Club Sat.

Falcon polishing stones