1) Cleanliness. Keep your polishing area away from grinding dust and chips. Do not allow it to become a disorganized mess of loose stones and accessories.

2) Separate your stones. It is amazing that people dump a 220 grit stone in a box or can with a 600 grit stone. Sometimes they even mix up polishing sticks with different grits of diamond! Let’s see, if you think you are polishing with a fine finish diamond and you get a coarser diamond piece mixed in, what do you think will be the result?

3) Move your polishing area away from grinders and bead blasting equipment. For some reason many shops just keep polishing away, right next to the surface grinders. All it takes is one stray piece of grinding grit to ruin your finish.

4) Use a microscope. Even though it is disheartening to see your work under a microscope, this is the only way to see the tiny scratches and imperfections. Plus, you can avoid rolling edges and damaging critical molding details

5)Don’t use unskilled help to do skilled work. Polishing is an art that takes a lot of time to learn. Don’t expect everyone to have the same ability when it comes to fine finishes or detail. Yet this often happens when owners view polishing as a nuisance.

6) Make a chart of the diamond paste colors. For some reason, some shops never write down which diamond is which grit, and moldmakers are left trying to figure out the same problem over and over again. Figure it out and make a copy near the diamond compound!

7) Don’t think that “cross-hatching” is some kind of religion. Sometimes you see people who think you must only polish in one direction for each grit. Horizontal with a 400 grit and vertical with a 600 grit, for example. You can and should go back and forth in any direction you need to, just make sure you end up with the lines in the direction of the ejection-draw polish it. Your speed will dramatically increase once you get over this misconception.