The several machines that had been "out there" in the World are now joined by the ones in this photo, and we expect to report feedback in our next SomeTimes. We of course did considerable prototype testing - including testing by professional cutter Andy Gulij (who lead us to several design refinements), and we performed "life tests" - long time steady operation - with "no fail" results. All of that, combined with the intense interest we found at the Tucson introduction, makes us optimistic about these new machines.

Here's a bit of advice we gleaned from Cambridge Professor Brad Amos - advice from him to a local faceter. Properly, under the heading of "one man's opinion" this one man is Dr. Brad Amos. Listen:

"I use the 'Batt' lap with 50K diamond. It polishes almost everything except the very softest stones such as apatite, for which I use a tin lap. I may as well tell you the procedure now.

Get some odourless and harmless non-drying oil. I use oil designed for woodwind musical instruments. Remove the rubber drip tray from the Ultra Tec and clean everything (including under fingernails) to remove grit from previous stages of grinding of the stone. Put the Batt into position without the drip tray and add no water at any stage of the polishing. (Water makes diamond dust form into hard agglomerations which produce large scratches, because diamond is hydrophobic).

Anoint the lap with three small drops of oil, add no more than a cubic millimetre of diamond dust and work this over the surface with fingertips until the entire lap is grey. Some people press the diamond in with a large flat piece of synthetic corundum: I find this unnecessary. A small facet should polish within 30 sec if appropriate prepolish has been given. To check the polish you need to be very fussy. Clean off all the oily diamond residue (I use chamois leather but a microfibre cloth from Tesco is just as good) and look hard with the 10x lens and with the intense light from a fibre optic not quite reflecting into your eye. You will then see defects such as deep fractures from earlier stages, as bright dots of light against a dark background. You have to keep polishing until they have all gone."

Yes, "one man's opinion" - a scholarly, scientific opinion. Other opinions most welcome.

To contact Sean, call 04-939-7949 or email info@worldwidegems.co.nz . Worldwide's website is www.worldwidegems.co.nz .

Working with her father, Michaela says she "learned by listening and doing" absorbing the knowledge and experience of her father and their customers.

With many years of experience, he has become an expert in gem cutting and gem materials, and has originated exceptional gem faceting designs.