Post by Tonyterner on Dec 12, 2008 15:59:00 GMT -5
These cabs all took some kind of extra work besides grinding, mostly superglue.
Lordknowsite. I got this from Stoner. It has quite a texture to it with lots and lots of voids, doesn't even seem like a stone to me. Maybe he will chime in and ID it. I had to use copious amounts of thick superglue to fill all the pits. 1 1/4" tall x 1 1/2" wide.
Anotherunknownite. No idea what it is but the rock was kinda of layered and took several applications of thin superglue to make sure it stayed together. 1 3/4" tall x 1" wide.
Purple passion agate. I think this is just a name the ebay seller made up. It was hard to cab because its 3 different materials. The purple is agate, the white quartz and the orange is something even softer. I applied some thin superglue to the orange areas to make sure the stone didn't crack through these areas. 1 1/2" tall x 1 1/4" wide.
Lepidolite. This isn't lapidary lepidolite, its more like purple mica. It was kind of an experiment and as soon as I touched it to the wheel it separated at one of the middle layers. I stopped right away and was going to give up on it until I squeezed it and noticed that water came out from between all the layers. I let it dry thoroughly then gave it several applications of thin superglue. That seemed to do the trick and allowed me to grind a flat dome onto the stone. After I was done it was still loosing tiny flakes of stone so I put a thin layer of superglue on it to hold it together. It has a real metallic flash to it. 1 3/4" tall by 1 1/8" wide.
And lastly my first doublet. More of an experiment actually. Its some type of green moss agate over howlite. I probably should have ground the the agate down thinner but I knew there was a void on the other side and didn't want it to come through. I'll try some more of these. 1 1/2" tall x 5/8" wide.
Thanks for looking.
Lordknowsite. I got this from Stoner. It has quite a texture to it with lots and lots of voids, doesn't even seem like a stone to me. Maybe he will chime in and ID it. I had to use copious amounts of thick superglue to fill all the pits. 1 1/4" tall x 1 1/2" wide.
Anotherunknownite. No idea what it is but the rock was kinda of layered and took several applications of thin superglue to make sure it stayed together. 1 3/4" tall x 1" wide.
Purple passion agate. I think this is just a name the ebay seller made up. It was hard to cab because its 3 different materials. The purple is agate, the white quartz and the orange is something even softer. I applied some thin superglue to the orange areas to make sure the stone didn't crack through these areas. 1 1/2" tall x 1 1/4" wide.
Lepidolite. This isn't lapidary lepidolite, its more like purple mica. It was kind of an experiment and as soon as I touched it to the wheel it separated at one of the middle layers. I stopped right away and was going to give up on it until I squeezed it and noticed that water came out from between all the layers. I let it dry thoroughly then gave it several applications of thin superglue. That seemed to do the trick and allowed me to grind a flat dome onto the stone. After I was done it was still loosing tiny flakes of stone so I put a thin layer of superglue on it to hold it together. It has a real metallic flash to it. 1 3/4" tall by 1 1/8" wide.
And lastly my first doublet. More of an experiment actually. Its some type of green moss agate over howlite. I probably should have ground the the agate down thinner but I knew there was a void on the other side and didn't want it to come through. I'll try some more of these. 1 1/2" tall x 5/8" wide.
Thanks for looking.