Lapidary is the art of shaping and polishing stones. There are many ways to shape stones, we will visit several here.
Tumbling of rocks can produce a smooth finish. Several steps are used to smooth the rocks to high polish. Others only use tumbling to round off the edges for rock to be used in art projects. Glass is often tumbled to round off edges for jewelry and art projects. Tumbling is also used for deburring and/or polishing metals.
Grinding of rocks is used to shape or round off stones for use in jewelry projects. If one uses several different grits of grinding stone they can produce smooth polished pieces. When the stone is shaped in a round or oval shape the items is call a cabachon.
Sawing of rocks is done to make flat slices used for projects, and/or trimming the stone to a size that can be worked easily by hand. Often large stones are cut to flat surfaces to be polished and used as furnishings. Counter tops and table tops are common example.
Lapping of stones produce a shinny surfaces is another aspect of lapidary work. Sawed stones are often smoothed via lapping to produce highly shined surfaces used in counters and tables.
Faceting is the polishing of mostly clear stones to be used in jewelry. Faceting is the cutting of small flats on the stone to create a shape that shows off the brilliance created by light into the stone and being reflected back out. Most engagement rings have a faceted stone as the center piece. Diamonds are the most common stones in engagement rings, other precious and semiprecious stones are becoming more in fashion today.