The act of final polishing on a rotary with a finishing polish and a low cut, low mechanical action pad has probably been around as long as people first started taking a 'wheel' to their car.
In the professional industry, such as in body shops, this term was often called 'glazing'. The main confusion was the definition of the word glaze. To the best of my research, the world glaze was originally given to products that would protect paint but not seal it, such as on fresh paint. Older, single stage paints would often get little cloudy when they out gassed, so most glazes contained a light abrasive to restore the gloss of sheen of the fresh paint. I have heard some old timer's refer to this as 'rubbing out the paint' and often done by hand to achieve that flawless shine.
Again, to the best of my research, in the old days fresh paint paint was 'cut' using a compound that sometimes consisted of corn starch, and a light wool pad. To remove the compounding marks and finish in one step, the all in one glaze was perfect.
As machine and pad technology advanced, glazes became machine applicable. Many of these glazes also contained a light 'filling' agent, since the application by machine could leave light buffer trails in the paint. The term glaze no longer meant a hand polish that may have light abrasives to be used on fresh paint, but rather a generic term used to describe any act of final polishing. Some glazes had fillers, some didn't. Some had protective qualities, some didn't.
As paint systems changed and became more difficult to work on, a new industry of refinishing and repairing paint systems emerged: The detailer. Detailers had started the only compounds and polishes available to them, the professional lines on the market.
To separate industries emerged: The professional users which called the process glazing, and often used products who demanded particular polishes which allowed the car to look great leaving the shop, and only would purchase products that allowed for quick turn around.
And the professional detailers who wanted to really focus on improving the paint's appearance and found a lot of the body shop 'glazes' substandard by default of the professional's needs. The detailers started referring to this process as final polishing to separate themselves from the term of glazes. It should be noted that a lot of detailers still used a glaze for its appearance properties, but not to final polish paint.
The recent explosion in detailers and enthusiast looking for the perfect shine has increased the numbers of people demanding more and using different terms, most companies still cater to the professional market, which is has a much larger share. The enthusiast who uses 32 oz's of product in 2 years polishing their own and their friends' cars is far less then the number of body shops ordering 55 gallon drums every couple of months.
In the professional world the word polish means to remove defects and the word glaze means to finish the paint out. Pad labels where meant to clarify this. Polish pads had various levels of cut aimed at removing defects and glazing pads had little to no cut aimed at finish the paint to the highest gloss possible.
As the Internet influence grew, detailers and enthusiast used there own lingo. Polishing was finishing the paint and glazing was an optional step before waxing, to increase the shine. Some on line retailers of detailing supplies dropped the ball and did not do enough research on the pad's original intent. This lead to a lot of detailers using professional medium step polishing pads to finish paint with a rotary, and never achieving the highest gloss possible.
When I first joined a popular detailing forum I was somewhat confused by the number of people finishing the paint with medium step pads. Coming from a brief background using only Meguiar's products (Meguiar's is one company who has always recommended last step polishing with a final polishing pad with a rotary polisher). Advances in polishes allow more aggressive pads to be used with out scouring the surface, but would sometimes not give full gloss, or lead to very faint hologramming that isn't always immediately visible.
Since polishing with a medium cut pad and a final polish was deemed 'final polishing' I started using the term 'jeweling' to describe the act of using the correct 'glazing' pad with the correct finishing pad. I did this only after a lot of people asking me why I wasn't using a medium cut pad like everybody else. I think it is very cool that this term caught on, but it is no more then true, final polishing or 'glazing'.
You are simply taking paint to it's highest potential by trying to remove as much abrasion as possible. It is unfortunate that some sites should have had better knowledge of the products they sell, CMA has always recommend final polishing with the correct pads for maximum gloss on a rotary polisher.
