Jade can be a bit frustrating to start on. The above advise is pretty much correct. Lapidary equipment is really a requirement if doing any more than simple polishing and shaping. To properly fit a pair of jade scales to a bolster and handle, and get a good polish will take some equipment,experience, and skill.
Jade can be ground with AO, SC, or Diamond wheels, discs,or belts. A water spray or drip is pretty much a necessity to avoid spalling and overheating.
While Peter B is on the right track, there is a bit more than "Get it Hot" involved in polishing some stones, jade included.
I have been a cutter and polisher for nearly 40 years now and have cut up many kilos of jade.I became as jeweler after first becoming an opal cutter.
Some physics will help understand polishing as it applies to many stones (and some metals):
The polishing of a surface is done in three ways;
1) Abrasion with decreasing grit size - referred to as the smaller scratch system.
2) Flowing the surface under pressure and heat generated by a hard polishing compound - This is the Twyman effect or Beilby surface.
3) Chemical polishing - this is more complex and involves the surface being chemically reacted in the polishing process and the high points chemically eroded down to a smooth surface
Jade is polished by (1) and (2). The surface needs to be reduced to as fine a finish as is practical, usually around 8000 grit, to get it smooth. It will look somewhat polished, but will have a slight haziness to it. Continuing on through grit size to 1/4 micron( about .00001 inch) or 100000 grit will help, but the have never quite disappears, even though the surface gets very smooth. Along the way a funny thing often happens. Orange Peel develops. A rippling of the surface that defies logic. This happens as whole clumps of atoms shear away, leaving a more pitted surface, not a smoother one. This is where the Flow polish comes in on stones that respond to it. These stones include the quartz family, corundum (ruby and Sapphire), zircons, and jade (as well as many others).
The flow is created by polishing with a very hard, but not necessarily abrasive polish. In the case of jade it is Chromium Oxide. When this polish is applied with pressure it develops a surface deformation and causes a super thin part of the surface to flow into a smooth and even layer, called the Beilby layer. This is why glass polishes to a white finish with abrasives and then gets water clear and smooth with a quick polish of cerium oxide. You don't actually want the stone too hot to hold as Peter suggested, as this may easily cause cracking, crazing, or outright breakage. The polishing should be done in quick firm strokes against a rotating polishing surface. Hard felt,phenolic surfaces,cloth belts, etc. are the usual polishing materials. Unlike the grinding and smoothing, the polishing is done as dry as possible, to alloy for the surface to flow.The compounds are often used in a block form that is mixed with a tallow or grease compound. That is basically the same as the chrome green polish we use on our knife blades to attain a mirror polish.Other compounds are mixed into a slurry and applied during the polishing as needed.
Before anyone has an epiphany, no you can't take a torch and "polish" the jade. That works for glass, because it is an amorphous silicate and as such has no crystal structure or solid state. Jade and other stones will crack if a flame is applied.
BTW, there was a Gemstone Genie lapidary grinder and polisher on ebay the other day for something like $150. Those cost about the same as a Bader grinder.
Hope this heps.
Stacy
