The History of the LIGHTNING LAP (LL)

A Gemstone Polishing Lap

By Ron McMurray ~ Best Cut Gems

The Developer of the Gemstone Polishing LIGHTNING LAP (LL)

The gemstone polishing lightning lap, or more commonly, the Lightning Lap is a polishing lap that was developed by Marsh Howard.  He is a product of the post-WWII, baby-boomer generation and spent his formative years near the shores of Lake Erie soaking up his love for smoked fish, Concord grapes, growing rocks in the garden, and the love of natural sciences. He has enjoyed several vocations in his life, including the graphic arts and being a rebuild specialist of sophisticated packaging equipment for a large privately owned corporation.  He has also worked as an owner/broker in the real estate business. But he decidedly prefers working with his hands.

Marsh started faceting gemstones in the mid 1980s as a hobby, and is now doing what he loves full time, including the development and manufacture of faceting solutions for the lapidary trade.  He likes to make this statement about faceting, "Polishing is everything!" This new gemstone polishing Lightning Lap is all about his love and passion for faceting gemstones.

The Birth of the Gemstone Polishing LIGHTNING LAP

This is how the gemstone polishing Lightning Lap came into being.  Marsh has a good friend, who is also a machinist.  One day while the two were talking about the subject of faceting gemstones, the machinist mentioned that he would like to see how a gemstone faceting machine worked.  So Marsh invited him to his studio and demonstrated how a faceting machine is used to cut and polish a piece of rough gem material.

Fascinated, the machinist mentioned the existence of a strange, space age plastic he had at his machine shop. So being curious whether it might work for polishing gemstones, Marsh journeyed to the machine shop. As he hefted and felt the sample, he garnered more information about the material. They discussed manufacturing requirements, and it was decided that several prototypes would be machined for testing.

Marsh then took the new prototype, gemstone polishing Lightning Lap and began testing it on various gemstone materials using different polishing mediums, such as diamond, cerium oxide and aluminum oxide.  To say the least, he was amazed at how well this new lapping surface worked as a gemstone polishing lap.  This new lap polished gemstones very quickly and aggressively with surprisingly flat facets. Overall, the results were outstanding!

This new lap also had another great advantage. In his quest to discover how the new lap surface would respond to different polishes, it was found that the Lightning Lap could be easily cleaned regardless of the polishing media previously used. Diamond, Cerium oxide, or Alumina could be thoroughly removed leaving no residual polishing material on the lap that could contaminate the next polishing operation.  This amazing feature allows the user to polish on the same lap with as many different gemstone polishing materials as desired with only a thorough cleansing in between each polish! Additionally, the gemstone polishing Lightning Lap would be cost effective to the user, as it can be used on both sides of the lap.

  Marsh shared the idea of the new gemstone polishing Lightning Lap with a close friend, who readily agreed to become a tester. And after just a few stones, he called to say that the new Lightning Lap produced a lightning fast, flat finish on typically problematic, quartz and glass using cerium oxide as the polish. It was then decided to christen this new gemstone polishing material, the LIGHTNING LAP.

After a several months of testing of the new Lightning Lap, Marsh decided to add yet a third tester to the mix. A couple months later, a dozen Lightning Laps were manufactured readied for further testing by a larger control group. Thus, the new gemstone polishing Lightning Lap -beta test group was formed. Sufficient data was provided by an excellent cross section of users. Finally in response to a buzz of anticipation, the gemstone polishing Lightning Lap made its formal debut into the market place in June of 2007. Since that time, Marsh has been busy keeping up with the demand for his Lightning Lap product, adding new features, and continuing with the development of even better things to come.

The Future Looks Great For the, LIGHTNING LAP

The feed back about the Lightning Lap has been very positive.  Recently I purchased a Lightning Lap. I finally tried it out and instantly fell in love with the ease and speed of polishing with this new amazing gemstone polishing Lightning Lap.  I plan on using it often, as I personally custom facet many gemstones.  It is a true time saver. The polish that it produces on gemstone facets is simply outstanding!  I now have a new "favorite" in my gemstone polishing lap arsenal.  If you love to facet gemstones, you definitely should be using the new gemstone polishing Lightning Lap (LL)! Remember what Marsh says, "Polishing is everything!"