1. After shaping a granite edge, it is ready to polish. Polishing is usually done either wet or dry. Wet polishing is done with water; Dry polishing is without water. Wet polishing will usually give an excellent polish in the least time for most stones. Dry polishing is used when water and wet polishing are not possible or feasible. Dry variable speed polishers and dry polishing pads have improved in the past years.

2. The three main types of stone polishers are center feed water air polishers, center feed water electric polishers and variable speed non-water grinders. The air and electric polishers are usually best for polishing. Optimal polishing speed is around 3,000 RPMs for most granite counter tops. Engineers of stone polishing may work at lower than 2000 RPMs.

3. The basic polishing method involves moving a spinning pad in an up and down motion over the shaped stone edge. While moving up and down, the fabricator moves the polisher left to right and back over the stone edge. The method is best picked up by watching either a DVD on stone polishing or an experienced polisher.

4. All stone polishing is step based. Starting with coarser grits, the stone edge is polished to a consistent finish with each grit before moving to the next grit. A sequence of grits- 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000 and final buff are typical for edge polishing. Skipping grits will not always result in the best finish. Buff pads come in either black or white. When buffing darker stone, you can use black buff; When lighter stone, you can use white buff. Neutral stones may be buffed with either black or white buff.

5. Dry polishing will create dust. But dry polishing has a real advantage when polishing already installed interior stone work or other places where water is not feasible.