lotarocks44
having dreams about rocks
Member since April 2004
Posts: 54
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Post by lotarocks44 on Sept 6, 2004 22:01:00 GMT -5
has anyone done fire agate
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Sept 6, 2004 23:04:37 GMT -5
I had a rock shop dealer give me a piece of stone that he called fire agate and since I am a sucker for agates I gave it a go. He told me to take a hammer and bust it up and I did and then I used my makita grinder with a tile blade on it to grind down a little more of the white till I almost hit the red part of the stone and then I tumbled it for the most part it turned out good but I did noticed that it pays to very carefull and get as much of the white part off as you can. it did shine up nice and has an interesting look
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Post by BearCreekLapidary on Sept 7, 2004 9:56:02 GMT -5
Hello Lotarocks,
I have not tumbled any.
Most fire agates have layers that have color in them, and need to be ground down close to the layer so that the light can be reflected back out of the stone and reveal the irredescence.
The color of this particular agate is caused by the layers of iron oxide within the quartz. Specific colors of Red, Blue and Purple are commonly known as "Royal Fire Agates". Some layers are very thin and others can be 4mm or 5mm thick.
The hardness is a 7 and the lighter shades of brown fire agates are typically from Arizona and the dark brown fire agates are from Mexico.
If your fire agate is showing some color ... I would give it a try!
Have a great day!
John
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Post by docone31 on Sept 7, 2004 13:38:10 GMT -5
I have polished fire agate. Let me assure you, fire agate is different. On one hand, it is not as difficult as people state, on the other, one grind too deep and the stone must be redone. Fire agate, is layered. The difference between a finished stone and one needing finishing is minute. It is hard to describe. With a conventional cabachon, you grind, and sand, then polish. It comes out well, sooner or later. With fire agate, a spot might touching up, and the next grind will go too deep. Then the entire stone needs re grinding. Carvings in fire agate, will, ironically, aet better results than just cutting and polishing. The carving limits the amount of polishing that can be done. In my opinion this assures a more consistent finish. In the carving process, the general depths of the fire shows up better than cutting and polishing. It is different from boulder opal in you sometimes cannot see the layering. Fire agate in the proper piece of jewelery is absolutely spectacular! Fire agate is well worth the journey.
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Malkavic
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since March 2004
Posts: 77
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Post by Malkavic on Sept 7, 2004 16:37:51 GMT -5
Greetings, Lotarocks... welcome to the group...
As for fire agates, I can tell you they are wonderful to work with... but can be a major pain as well... as everyone's said, Fire agates are layered, and it can be wonderful to find one of those layers but just as painful to grind past one..... I've never tried tumbling them though, so I'm not sure how well they would come out... I would think that with the layers being as fragile as they usually are, the tumbling might actually cause them to flake and become more damaged... but it's worth a shot.
Billy
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lotarocks44
having dreams about rocks
Member since April 2004
Posts: 54
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Post by lotarocks44 on Sept 7, 2004 21:16:58 GMT -5
I put some pictures on the other page of some fire agate that I did a while ago it didnt turn out real good but I have some more coming so thanks for all the advise
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