Steel laps are the tool of choice for most polishers. Steel can be ground to any thinness and still allow for heavy downward pressure. Steel laps can be used with diamond compound or silicon carbide lapping compound as the cutting medium.

Lapping compound is only slightly slower than diamond, but considerably cheaper. Unfortunately, the downside to steel laps is greater than the benefits derived from them – steel laps often create deep, “zig-zag” lines in the side walls of the ribs, which are often far worse than the EDM with which they started. This is due to “scoring” between the steel rib wall and the steel lap. The only way to get around this uncontrolled scoring is to not push down so hard, but this also slows down the cutting process.

Another big disadvantage to steel laps is the combination of downward pressure and the cutting action of the profiler, which often causes the diamond or lapping compound particle to simply shatter into fine grains. Shattering the rough grain and leaving a fine grain wastes time. The ultimate tool would allow downward pressure without shattering the larger size grains.

Two examples of steel laps are:
Pre-hard rod cut to thickness and length.

Stainless steel butter knives are often already the perfect thickness, blade length and strength for deep rib work and are the ideal width for mounting sticky-back, press-on paper abrasives. They also can be mounted into profilers and heavy-duty air profilers.