Linishing, for the uninitiated, is basically high speed sand papering an item prior to polishing. Many items come in for polishing as raw bar and trying to polish to a high shine without linishing is a complete waste of time. Linishing will usually comprise of starting with either a 120 or 180 grade paper and work through the grades down to 400 grade or more. It is possible to linish an item to the stage where it only requires a final buff to bring up the finish.