I realize there is a bit of debate with regards to whether or not to polish girdles on gems. Best I can make out from various online articles and youtubes is that some people think it looks nice and some think it isn't worth the time, with nearly no light reflected back through the crown from the girdle.
I assume, in my faceting career, I'm eventually going to want to polish a girdle or two, when I find a stone that warrants it - maybe it will be particularly large, or the girdle itself will be one of the larger cuts.
So my question is - for those of you who polish girdles - how do you do it without making an absolute mess? When I cut a girdle, I get swarf and coolant water everywhere all over my faceter - this is because my splash pan is in the way if I'm cutting at 90 degrees. I can only imagine it's even worse getting Cerium Oxide everywhere. Is there a good way short of wrapping everything in seranwrap of keeping things relatively clean while polishing girdles?
There should be either a slot, or a way to hold down a flexible splash pan for cutting and polishing your girdle.
I polish a faceted girdle on all small stones, and any size stone that has flat sides. (emerald, radiant, an such)
For large stones with curved shapes like rounds, ovals, pears, marquise I hand polish the girdles after cutting and polishing the pavilion. This is important to do because you want to make sure you get sharp meet points at the girdle when cutting the crown. This helps keep the curves smooth, and I think looks better.
Yeah I hope to one day be able to find a flexible splash pan (or one with a slot) for my MDR, but I’m nervous to pull the trigger on anything until I’m certain it will fit.
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2016 7:58 pm Posts: 1424 Location: San Marcos, CA
It appears my prior post image is to large to display.
Here is what I made to work on my old MDR machine, and I use a small sponge between the lap and splash guard to stop the majority of the directional fluid from the edge of lap. Base on the lap direction the sponge is positioned to one side or the other of the opening.
Contact me if you want a shield made, costs plus shipping. shipping will cost more than the part.
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