Gearloose DARKSIDE Composite Polymer Lap for Polishing - 6"

The DARKSIDE is a lightweight resurface-able lap. Provides trouble-free polishing without scratches.

The Darkside™ was created to address the rising metals prices and to create an affordable easy-to-charge and use lap. They immediately became popular with people who always had trouble charging a metal lap. But there were surprises in store: The Darkside outperformed expectations and has been adopted by many professional production cutters. In particular, they are the "Magic bullet" for quartzes when used with Cerium, Zirconium, or Chromium Oxides.

Suppose we took the ease of a Corian-type lap, coupled with the speed of a composite lap, but reduced wearing and heating? Now add polar and nonpolar domains to allow the use of the whole range of diamond and oxide polishes. The lap quickly breaks in on the first stone, without the charging process needed for metal laps, making it user-friendly for beginners.

The Darkside lap is designed for polishing only - you will NOT be able to cut with the DARKSIDE™ as you can with the BATT. DARKSIDE is a Trademark used to describe a proprietary advanced composite polymer that has been engineered to produce low coefficients of Friction and thereby run cooler than other polymeric laps. It has domains which are lyophilic and hydrophilic, allowing use of any polish medium. Like all Gearloose laps, the polishing mechanism relies on surface complexity for polish retention, and lubricity for reduced heating and higher polishing efficiency. Some users have gotten three pavilions done before needing to add more diamond. Because the composite contains carbon, it has a natural affinity for diamond, but the hydrophilic domains accept oxide polishes.

USING THE DARKSIDE (info sourced from the manufacturer):

Go Easy! Be stingy with the polish! For use with diamond polish, you can use a tiny bit of spray compound, or a THIN SPARSE amount of the regular compound, or, with a tissue wipe on a thin film of WD40 or any common oil type extender, then wipe dry. Wipe on a THIN film of diamond powder. Wipe clean once in a while to remove stone dust buildup, and repeat as needed to maintain polishing speed. Slower speeds are used than with a BATT™. Try 200-400 RPM until you get the feel of the lap.

For oxide use, either use it right out of the box with a THIN, dilute slurry of the oxide polish, or, if changing from diamond to oxide for that pesky quartz, wash the lap with a little detergent (409 or Fantastik work well), rinse, and begin polishing. After oxide use, if you want to go back to diamond, rinse the lap, and prepare as above with the oily tissue to "polarize" the lap for diamond.