As is well-agreed, the polishing of glass is a complex process involving interactions between the glass surface, the polishing agent, water, and the polishing lap. But because the mechanism of glass polishing still is not clearly understood, determining the optimum conditions of preparation of the polishing agent requires an empirical approach and the following discussion is aimed at describing how various methods of preparing cerium oxide affect the characteristics of the product and how (not necessarily why) these correlate with polishing activity.