BACKGROUND:

The Zirconia products and the new Skyway™are a joint venture with Adamas Faceting, who has been using zirconia with quartz for decades, and has been pursuing the Skyway concept for a long time, as well. The Skyway ingredients did not exists in a usable form until recently.

Since the polymer composite system and manufacturing practices already were in place for the Greenway, it was practical to collaborate on these products.

This allowed rapid prototype production for field testing and a seamless introduction to the Market.


The Skyway™ is a refractory alloy ceramic/polymer composite premium polishing lap, made on a full-thickness base, and machined on both sides for flatness.

The intial testing of the Skyway was done at a prominent faceting school. There were some surprises, one of which was finely-polished apatite. The Skyway is an aggressive and fast polishing lap for the feldspars, peridot, beryls, quartzes, (and especially the noncrystalline species like opal), garnets, tourmaline, tanzanite. Spinel, topaz, and zircon polish faster on the Skyway when "boosted" with a little alumina.

The Skyway™ can be resurfaced. Diamond turning tools are strongly suggested. As with the Creamway™ and Greenway™, it does not pack flaws in emerald or other such stones. The 8" Skyway™ is $165.00.

Skyway™ will also supplied in the 6" size.



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