In August of 2006, armed with a profound interest in finding a better way, The Lightning Lap™, or more commonly named, the LL, was born from an idea that oxide polishing should be easier, surer, and possibly superior to that of diamond polishing. After all, oxides as a polishing medium have been around since man discovered their value in making stones shiny.

Understanding of various compounds and materials led from one thing to the next. A challenge came from a production cutting shop to find a lapping material that would be kinder to such stones as quartz, beryl, and more specifically, emerald, as metal or composite/metal laps can leave behind metal fragments in tiny fractures of the gemstones. Those tiny fragments are very hard to remove, if at all which reduces the appraised value of the finished gem.

Another associate became interested in my quest and agreed to co-test this new product. I decided to employ a “double-blind” study format. Each of us would use our test lap in different ways. My test partner concentrated on Cerium oxide only, while I used diamond, prime oxides- cerium and alumina, and another oxide polish by the name of “Super Blue.” Among the different kinds of gemstone polished was quartz, garnet, beryls, sapphire, apatite, opal, Peridot, Scapolite, kunzite, sunstone, tanzanite, topaz, tourmaline, zircon, synthetics such as CZ, YAG, and glass. My test partner affixed, or painted his LL with a proprietary cerium oxide spray and then polished quartz and glass with the aid of cerium slurry.

Our conclusions were the quartz-family and glass polished much quicker and surer with a cerium-treated LL surface aided by the cerium slurry. In fact, it was like “Lightning!” Secondly, the LL was impervious to retention of diamond particles, no matter how many times you switched back and forth from oxides to diamond, or vice versa there was no contamination. Unbelievable as it may seem, a thorough cleansing of the lap was all that was necessary before applying the next polish!

It was decided that we had made a tremendous breakthrough in lapidary polishing. No two laps possess the exact same parallelism. So imagine not having to change laps for the next polishing step?

The results from our initial polishing study gave enough information to proceed to the next step of adding more testers. About three months into initial testing, a cutting shop was invited to join us. And that’s when even greater things began to happen!

The cutting shop introduced some different challenges and cutting conditions. Actually, it was a no holds-barred experiment. It was time to give the new LL a thorough shake-down! Within the first few minutes of usage, the LL became a hit with the cutting shop!

Very tiny amounts of diamond were mixed with various oils to achieve a wonderful polish on Garnet, Sapphire, Emerald, and many other species of gemstone. Eventually, a special proprietary polish, now known as The BEAST was tried on the LL to see if it would work to keep corundum cooler while polishing. This was a big success! Production in the cutting shop soared, as the new-found LL became the “go-to” lap in their shop.

So plans were made for eventual introduction of this new LL product to the open market place.

Shortly thereafter, another prime tester was asked to join the group, which now comprised eight people on two continents! This new tester dared to think outside of his box. More compounds, gem materials, and polishing methods were tried. These trials gave even more information and bolstered our previous findings, that the Lightning Lap must be introduced to the world faceting community.

However, before that could be accomplished, an even larger, more varied beta-testing group needed to join our ranks. So seven months after the initial testing had begun, a dozen more people with various backgrounds and lapidary experience were added to the test group.

Several more months of testing produced even more favorable data. It was agreed by an over-whelming consensus, that the Lightning Lap should be placed on the open market.