chemical vapor deposited silicon carbide (cvd sic) is a recent addition to the list of materials suitable for use in the harsh environment of synchrotron radiation (sr) beam lines. sr mirrors for use at normal incidence must be ultrahigh vacuum compatible, must withstand intense x-ray irradiation without surface damage, must be capable of being polished to an extremely smooth surface finish, and must maintain surface figure under thermal loading. cvd sic exceeds the performance of conventional optical materials in all these areas it is, however, a relatively new optical material. few manufacturers have experience in producing optical quality material, and few opticians have experience in figuring and polishing the material. the cvd material occurs in a variety of forms, sensitively dependent upon reaction chamber production conditions. we are evaluating samples of cvd sic obtained commercially from various manufacturers, representing a range of deposition conditions, to determine which types of cvd material are most suitable for superpolishing. at the time of this writing, samples are being polished by several commercial vendors and surface finish characteristics are being evaluated by various analytical methods. (era citation 07:008003)