When something is polished it is more than finished. Not just done but also shinning. Exemplary. Sometimes this final stage is accomplished through the application of something extra, by layering on the wax or the varnish. The thing by itself is incomplete and only by fusing it with these thick layers of alien matter can it be made to shine in the way we desire. Other times the thing has within itself the capability to shine. We know locked inside is perfection, and polishing is then an act of cleaning, of scouring, of hacking away until the beauty we believed to be inside is brought blazing to the surface.