I sometimes get questions about polishing gold and why I don’t use an agate stone polisher.
Here are some photos of pieces with either powdered or numbered gold that has been polished or not with an agate tool.

The photo above shows #3 grind gold that has been ‘hardened'(see link https://www.kintugi.com/?page_id=225 , steps 1-4) Using an agate tool does do some smoothing. You can get a better finish if you use polishing stones. After using agate I suggest finishing it with the regular powders and lacquers outlined here, https://www.kintugi.com/?page_id=225 from about step 5.
The photo at the bottom of this series shows the same piece after it has been smoothed some.

The photo above shows keshifun, fine powdered gold, with a small spot polished with agate. This is one way to finish keshi if you feel it is necessary. It is possible to ‘tamp’ it down with agate. It changes the nature of the appearance of the gold and makes it more ‘gold’ like. I prefer for keshifun to have the unpolished finish which is why I don’t use agate.

The photo above shows the bottom of a very old Imari piece that is finished with keshifun and then parts of it have been polished and others not. I prefer the more subdued look of the unpolished gold.

The photo above is the same bowl as in the first photo after it has had a small area polished with agate.

The photo above shows #3 grind gold that has been ‘hardened'(see link https://www.kintugi.com/?page_id=225 , steps 1-4) with the entire line polised using agate. The cup is an antique that someone glued back together with a modern epoxy and I have done the best I can to smooth that and apply lacquer and gold over it but some of the epoxy is still visible. Using an agate tool does do some smoothing but it is not easy to see in the photos. You can get a better finish if you use polishing stones. After using agate I suggest finishing it with the regular powders and lacquers outlined here, https://www.kintugi.com/?page_id=225 from about step 5.

Here is a video showing polishing of fine gold powder.