Trim saw isn't just for trimming
Feb 12, 2024 11:51:46 GMT -5
dshanpnw, chris1956, and 2 more like this
Post by Bob on Feb 12, 2024 11:51:46 GMT -5
The thought occurred to me last night while trimming rock after rock that perhaps it's worth mentioning that I use a trim saw (mine is 10") for a purpose that I've never seen mentioned or documented. Perhaps lots of others here do the same thing. Maybe new members might like knowing of it.
I had a 40lb barrel of Lavic jasper come out of the first week in rough grind. Only 10%, far less than usual, are shapes that can continue w/o needed trimming. Usually only 50% or so of my field collected rocks need trimming, but this Lavic is pretty crazy stuff in shape.
So obviously I' trimming off long projections and cutting through holes in the middle of the rock and cutting off ends that are fractured and all these things that are obviously done when trimming. All my trimming is hand-held which I've done for 5-6 years now. It's certainly no fun having, in the winter weather like this, that ice-cold mineral oil flowing over one's hands in the beginning before it finally starts to warm up a little in a half hour!
Now to the deal. Let's say there is a piece that is just covered with holes and cruddy areas and dent and bends--but--due to the weight and feel of the rock you just suspect inside there is a keeper. So, there are 3 ways to go:
1. Put it back in rough grind repeatedly, week after week, until finally the outside gets worn down and reveals, hopefully, a keeper that was worth spending all that time and grit on.
2. Start trimming all over the thing to get to a solid surface before putting it back in rough grind. This can take a long time. Often, I don't want to trim in more than one place w/o putting it back in rough grind a week first, because how it comes out will often influence where I want to trim next.
3. Just plow cut through the middle of the thing to investigate whether it's a solid rock and worth keeping by looking at the sawn surfaces. I did this a lot on weirdly-shaped Lavic pieces, and was surprised how many are solid inside even though the outside is very cruddy. A downside of this is it creates 2 smaller rocks in the end, rather than 1 nice larger one, but it save a whole lot of time compared to 1 and 2. So I do it quite a bit. So glad I did this on some of the larger Brenda jasper pieces from Quartzsite last year, because some of them were decent on the outside but had a huge cruddy black porous area on the inside.
So 3 is what I'm talking about. Not sure what to call this use of a trim saw.
An attempt to state it simply: A trim saw can be used to cut a rock in half to see the inside to find out whether it's a keeper or not. This is especially useful when the surface of the rock makes visualizing what's inside challenging.
If someone has a better way of stating it I welcome it.
I had a 40lb barrel of Lavic jasper come out of the first week in rough grind. Only 10%, far less than usual, are shapes that can continue w/o needed trimming. Usually only 50% or so of my field collected rocks need trimming, but this Lavic is pretty crazy stuff in shape.
So obviously I' trimming off long projections and cutting through holes in the middle of the rock and cutting off ends that are fractured and all these things that are obviously done when trimming. All my trimming is hand-held which I've done for 5-6 years now. It's certainly no fun having, in the winter weather like this, that ice-cold mineral oil flowing over one's hands in the beginning before it finally starts to warm up a little in a half hour!
Now to the deal. Let's say there is a piece that is just covered with holes and cruddy areas and dent and bends--but--due to the weight and feel of the rock you just suspect inside there is a keeper. So, there are 3 ways to go:
1. Put it back in rough grind repeatedly, week after week, until finally the outside gets worn down and reveals, hopefully, a keeper that was worth spending all that time and grit on.
2. Start trimming all over the thing to get to a solid surface before putting it back in rough grind. This can take a long time. Often, I don't want to trim in more than one place w/o putting it back in rough grind a week first, because how it comes out will often influence where I want to trim next.
3. Just plow cut through the middle of the thing to investigate whether it's a solid rock and worth keeping by looking at the sawn surfaces. I did this a lot on weirdly-shaped Lavic pieces, and was surprised how many are solid inside even though the outside is very cruddy. A downside of this is it creates 2 smaller rocks in the end, rather than 1 nice larger one, but it save a whole lot of time compared to 1 and 2. So I do it quite a bit. So glad I did this on some of the larger Brenda jasper pieces from Quartzsite last year, because some of them were decent on the outside but had a huge cruddy black porous area on the inside.
So 3 is what I'm talking about. Not sure what to call this use of a trim saw.
An attempt to state it simply: A trim saw can be used to cut a rock in half to see the inside to find out whether it's a keeper or not. This is especially useful when the surface of the rock makes visualizing what's inside challenging.
If someone has a better way of stating it I welcome it.
