Rough or smooth leather for Linde A

Greetings, all. I have a chart that shows what buff materials to use with what polishing compounds. For Lapis and similar stones, it recommends using leather with Linde A/Raybrite. However, I don’t know if its rough leather, smooth leather, or doesn’t matter. Anyone have any ideas?

Can you share the URL for the chart? I have lots of Lapis but I have never used Linde A to polish it. I stay with diamnd laps and have even repolished the Lapis with Zam after setting it. It (at least that which I have), is soft and doesn’t keep a polish very well unless it is gem grade.


Hopefully that links properly.

I have a rough side out leather lap which I have used for polishing the recommended species…I looked at the suppliers and they supply both rough and smooth laps. Apparently it is a matter of preference. I think either would work. I think I might use smooth now if I had the choice…it seems intuitively that you would lose less polish that way, but that’s just a guess on my part. -royjohn

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I’ve used smooth with Raybrite at the lapidary lab I used to have access to. I swore by it, but I’m unsure if there would be any difference using rough. Well, I’ll get a smooth pad for now, since i know that works, and I’ll keep my eyes open for when Kingsley North gets rough pads again.

Look to others for answers to your questions where you can, but you need to be ready to find your own. Try both the rough and smooth side and decide for yourself, then share the results.

Most smooth leather is rough on the other side, but, depending on how the pad is made, it may not be reversible on the machine. You could certainly charge the pad on the back side and manually rub on it to see the response. -royjohn

1" square piece of Lapis polished with Linde A on a flex shaft mounted hard felt wheel. I keep these mounted in zip lock bags with different polishes to touch up an “Oh Sh***t” moment…Rob

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Rob is that some of Dad’s stock?

D

I think that it is a piece that Seth bought when he was stationed in some awful place in the Middle East.