Shout out for Rough2Cut's Laps

Hi All,

I will apologise now that this may be a long post, or 2.

After digging & gathering up pretty rocks for a few years, & cabbing for a while too. I have been learning to facet for the last little while. Limited free time, combined with a touch of the old O.C.D. means its a steep learning curve. Ive found tons of really helpful inspiration here from you guys. So here I am writing this in the hope it helps any of you in return.

Since starting up I often read mainly on overseas forums, that any topper lap will do for roughing & cutting. But then there is an ever-expanding list of recommendations for stone specific pre-polish & polishing laps. Meanwhile there is a steady stream of newbies like me, having a hard time getting a good pre-polish / polish, & asking for help. This has me scratching my head lately. I have given that advice a really good go already & maybe its just me. But I am finding that a different strategy absolutely transforms the process for me. Which is the reason for my post.

So to show you what I am on about, here is a sacrificial bit of Cristinite. Its been repeatedly cut as a pyramid while tuning up my old Gemmasta, all the way down to the wax.



Usually with me doing the cutting, the edges to chip pretty significantly on Cristinite, that is using plated laps all the way up to 1200. Cristinite is a bit of a bugger for me. Then again opal, quartz, topaz, tourmaline, & sapphire all have their own reasons to be a bugger too. You guys will probably know what I mean.

This pic is actually showing the finish from Rough2Cuts (Tony Fitzgerald) 360 grit sintered lap. Its super balanced & ultra flat. It removes material like a wood chipper. But I can get it to leave a clean, flat undamaged surface like this, even on cristinite. I reckon thats worthy of some praise for this lap.

The other most common advice Ive seen is that sintered laps are too expensive. But I reckon the speed gained due to the lack of damage they cause is well worth the cost to me personally. I have come to see that for me, the amount of damage I cause in roughing & cutting has a far bigger influence on the speed I can get through the job than pretty much anything else. It didn't really click for me when starting up, so maybe I am preaching to the choir here already. But I thought I should share it just the same.

My original lap purchases have now mostly been replaced with Tonys laps. I run the 360 grit sintered, for most rough cutting. For fine cutting through to polish I am using Tonys 8 fast cutting system with 800 sintered outer rim, & a couple of interchangeable pre-polish/ polish centre laps depending on the stone. I love not having to change the stone height to go from cutting to pre-polish to polish. Im using his polishing compounds too. So I will take some pics showing results of these too, as I am similarly impressed. But this is probably long enough for now.

Hope it helps.

Hi again,

Oops So I cut a pavilion on that same cristinite with the 800 sintered lap in the fast cutting system. I wanted to follow up with an apples for apples comparison between the 2 sintered laps. But I kinda messed that up. In my usual rush, I got a fair way through pre-polish before I remembered I meant to take a photo before pre-polish. So um, bugger! Here it is anyways. This means the only indication you get of the 800 grit finish is on the girdle. The stone size is just on 7.45mm to give an idea of scale. Still only a fraction of a mm under what it was in the last pic. I could still try a few more pavilion cuts on it before I am in any danger of running out of room for a crown. So who knows, maybe I will find the time to try again, and remember not to dive straight into pre-polish. This design is Mulder's Box

Meanwhile here is a bit of a backup photo of an SRB during pavilion fine cutting on the 800 grit sintered rim.

I dont like this photo so much because I havent gotten the meets quite there yet. But the surface finish on the pavilion to me is mind blowing for a cutting lap. So it still shows what I am on about despite my newbie cutting skills.

I'm still a newbie, so please take my words as such. But I do feel like shouting from the rooftops about these laps. The other big plus to me is that they are locally made in Aus & should last me a lifetime. Should I stuff one of these laps up, it can be back to Tony within a day or 2.

So far I am finding with these laps a lot of the issues that made learning to facet a bit frustrating, & slow for me have now disappeared. I will end this by saying I was already thankful for meeting Tony through here. For the invaluable advice he has provided in reviving my old Gemmasta. But I intend to pass this on to Tony as literally my first ever testimonial for anything lapidary. Hope this helps you guys too. Hows that for a happy customer !

I am currently waiting for one of rough2cuts laps. Keen to give it a whirl. My problem so far is it has been on back order for 4 weeks now.

I hate using electroplated laps. Just terrible no matter who makes them.

I have one of Tony's sintered 360's and yes, it is very good. Cuts very quickly but without leaving over-large scratches. I can reccomend them.

The laps from Rough2cut are defo worth the wait. I think his laps are far superior to other more easily recognizable and 'fashion branded' laps which far to often arrive with excessive run-out requiring more expense on machining. I did have to wait two or three months but glad I did.

Im slowly working my way thru all the backlog,but as im the only manufacturer of sintered discs and only do this part time there will be a longer wait for special laps as i make my money cutting (need to pay the rent) Im glad the laps are getting a good review as i do my best to make laps that will last a life time. My health has been up and down but improving over time making it easier to get to the laps. next year will be different. Thanks for your support.

Thanks for the comments folks.

And thank you again Tony,

Hats off to anyone who makes or sells faceting equipment. It seems like a pretty small market, & producing / supporting anything with the kind of accuracy we need seems like it would be difficult at best.

Having visited the Rough2Cut factory a handful of times now. Ive seen enough to think that producing these laps is probably as much an art as it is manufacturing. I feel pretty lucky I got to see one in action very early on. From there I waited in line to get the 360 & then the fast cutting system, and a few other bits to go with them too. It was so worth the wait that here I am writing about it on a forum. Something you guys might have noticed I pretty much never do.

I tried most of the other popular equipment in the mean time too. So I feel like I have a good basis for comparison. There sure seems to be a legion of people on-board with the fashion branded laps & they seem to get results. I cant really argue with that. More power to those guys. I would have to think that the ones like Mr Magoo mentioned must be anomalies. But to be fair I have experienced it also.

The big deal to me though is that the Rough2Cut sintered laps seem to give whatever pre-polish & polish lap I use the absolute easiest job possible. If I hadnt started out learning faceting on an old and really out of calibration Gemmasta. And sought some local help getting it back in shape. I would probably still be not up to speed on that! I reckon thats a bit of a shame.

This makes so much more sense to me than the save the big guns until pre-polish kind of advice I read over & over when I was first starting up. I really wanted to put up some pics to show it for anyone in the same boat. Even though I find photos of my own work in progress a bit like looking at a half done hair cut