it is the thesis of this paper that shear mode grinding (smg), (ductile grinding, nanogrinding, fractureless grinding) is just a particular form of polishing. it may be unique in that it can involve a hard wheel of very precise dimensions compared to the soft laps usually used in polishing. such a wheel would permit the fabrication of a precision surface on a brittle material such as glass at a precisely located and oriented position on a part. the technological and economic consequences of such a process seem important but the technical obstacles to implementing the technique are for the moment formidable. it is in production in japan. this paper provides a bit of understanding of that process obtained by making an end run around the obstacles to view the process from the vantage point of lapping the paper will lay out some of the concepts and terminology necessary to understand the papers that have supplied the real labor to get us to this point. it will refer to parts of this work briefly in passing so the reader who needs the details knows where to look, and for what, in the bibliography appended. 32 refs., 5 figs