Working at the Hochschule Trier workshop
The Cut, Grinding and Polishing workshop instructed by Alexander Friedrich was held at the stone grounding workshop of the Trier University of Applied Sciences on the Campus in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. The pictures show a selection of the machines we learned to use. On the far left are the grinders with wheels in different coarsenesses, with which cabochons formed from a rough stone. Water to cool the stone and grinding wheels is dripping onto the wheel. The pink rags make sure the water lands on the grinding wheel without splashing too much. The middle image shows the machines to be used to polish the stones. Their wheels are out of bakelite. The disc for high-gloss polishing is out of felt. The machines for faceting are in the right photo. A facet is a small straight plane on a stone for this, the flat side of a metal disc is used together with a polishing paste in different coarseness.