The polishing of precious metals
Polishing refers to all processes whose aim is to produce an even, smooth and shiny surface. In the case of jewelry, a distinction is made between roughness, mattness, semi-mattness, silky mattness, silky gloss, gloss, high gloss and mirror gloss. Depending on the style of the jewelry, a matt or shiny appearance may be preferred.
Methods of precious metal polishing
Two methods are commonly used for polishing precious metals :
The first method involves removing irregularities using fine abrasive material, such as diamond dust. The second method uses a specific pressure process to process the surface, which presses irregularities evenly into place.
Both processes produce a uniform and flat surface of the precious metal, which makes the material look higher quality and more valuable.
The polishing of gemstones
After a gemstone has been faceted, the next step is polishing. Depending on the hardness of the gemstone to be worked on, a different method is used. For very hard gemstones - from a Mohs hardness of 8 - an abrasive containing diamonds is used for polishing. For less hard gemstones, other preparations can also be used for polishing.
