hoolko
off to a rocking start
Member since February 2012
Posts: 7
|
Post by hoolko on Feb 1, 2012 8:08:04 GMT -5
I am making guitar picks using an ameritool flat lap machine...can I save a lot of work smoothing and polishing by just cutting guitar pick basic shape with 100 grit disc and then using the tumbling process for everything else? will guitar picks get broken and misshapen in the tumbler? thank you very much
|
|
|
Post by connrock on Feb 1, 2012 9:20:50 GMT -5
I've only made a few picks out of Brazilian Agate and did them in my vibe unit. I rough ground the outer surfaces and did the rest in the vibe. As you can see,the one in the upper right has a chip out of the top of it but I believe that would have happened in a rotary as well as the agate has a fracture in it there. I don't think I would try to do them in a rotary especially if you cut them 1mm thick. connrock
|
|
|
Post by johnjsgems on Feb 1, 2012 11:23:10 GMT -5
Yes in a vibe with about 70% small ceramic media.
|
|
herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
|
Post by herchenx on Feb 1, 2012 12:08:52 GMT -5
Tom, I've often wondered, can you *play* with these picks? I had always assumed they would just be a novelty of some sort, but I figured I should ask.
|
|
|
Post by johnjsgems on Feb 1, 2012 12:51:10 GMT -5
I've heard they are stiffer than plastic picks but have a much better tone.
|
|
|
Post by susand24224 on Feb 1, 2012 15:13:29 GMT -5
I sent a bunch to mandolin/guitar players as presents. The strummers didn't like them (wanted more flexibility) but the flat pickers thought they were great.
Susan
|
|
herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
|
Post by herchenx on Feb 1, 2012 15:30:51 GMT -5
I don't mind the inflexibility - I was thinking more "will they break?"
|
|
|
Post by connrock on Feb 2, 2012 9:46:36 GMT -5
Hi John, I made the picks for a RTH member who is a guitar teacher. He told me that the agate/jasper picks give a much "truer" tone when picking a melody.
Also,the less flexible a pick is the faster you can play fast rifts or licks,,, A flexible picks takes time to return to it's original "flat" shape after a note is struck on the string and an agate/jasper pick does not "flex" at all so the agate/jasper picks can actually help you to play a little faster.
I don't think the agate/jasper picks are very good for strumming a guitar or other string instruments but have never tried one.
I'm a 'thumbpicker" and play with my thumb pick and 3 fingers of my right hand and gave up using straight picks about 40 years ago!
I found that the most difficult part of making agate/jasper picks is to cut slabs as thin as 1mm. I recently made 2 picks out of Australian mooakite and could only cut the slabs about 2-3 mm thick. I had to grind their thickness down to about 1.5 mm using my Genie before they went into my lot-o.
connrock
|
|