Skipper
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2003
Posts: 258
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Post by Skipper on Sept 20, 2004 23:46:40 GMT -5
Here goes nuttin... I had to have some blue in my "finished rocks" jar, so sodalite was a must. The lapidary said I could run it with other rocks, so I chose Tiger Jasper. When I saw it, I fell in love with the browns. Tiger (and Soda) in the rough. Even in rough form the sodalite is gorgeous.  Finished product:  The Tiger came out fantastic  Not all the soda came out nice, so I sent it back with some other stuff...red jasper, green moss agate, and various others I picked up from the ground (top right). You can see the soda on the left still didn't come out right. The lapidary guy said I "over-polished it". I believe him.  |
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Post by rockyraccoon on Sept 21, 2004 8:53:39 GMT -5
skipper those look great! are you going to try to keep working on the sodalite you are not satisfied with? by overpolished should they have come out of the polish earlier than the others? the tiger jasper reminds me of the mook but a little different.
kim
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Post by creativeminded on Sept 21, 2004 9:10:24 GMT -5
Those really look good.
Tami
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Post by connrock on Sept 21, 2004 9:12:16 GMT -5
Hi Skipper, The sodalite is a hardness of 5-1/2 - 6 on the Mohs scale of hardness and the jasper is a 6-1/2 - 7. What you did was mix materials of different hardness and the jasper actually scratched the sodalite. If you'll click on the link you'll see a good explaination of Mohs scale and that there is quite a difference between a 5 and 7. As you'll see the diference between one number to the next almost doubles,in some cases and more then doubles in others. www.free-definition.com/Mohs-scale-of-mineral-hardness.htmlI've never heard of over polishing any material and I've never experienced it but ,,, Live and learn. I hope this will help you a tad anyway,,,, Tom  |
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Post by krazydiamond on Sept 21, 2004 9:14:45 GMT -5
overpolish? i've never heard of THAT before.....but i think those came out pretty darn nice! that is very "veiny" sodalite, more so than the batch i did a while back. sure is nice stone tho.
great job, Skipper!
KD
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Post by BearCreekLapidary on Sept 21, 2004 9:51:37 GMT -5
Hello Skipper,
That looks like a great batch to me.
I think Tom hit it on the head ... I believe your mix of hardnesses was the culprit ... as I have never heard of over polishing either.
Still it's a great looking bunch of rocks. Thanks for the photo's.
John
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Post by hermatite on Sept 21, 2004 12:20:33 GMT -5
Now that's the second time I've heard of overpolishing sodalite. The other time was somewhere on this forum too. In fact, the last batch of mine turned out fine...I'm beginning to suspect sodalite is like my pothos plant. It kind of thrives on abuse...maybe.
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Post by krazydiamond on Sept 21, 2004 14:17:04 GMT -5
i guess i just lucked out with my sodalite, cuz i mixed it in with everything else (jasper, quartz, etc) and it came out pretty shiny, beginner's luck perhaps or i just got a particulary good batch of the stuff.
who knows?
KD
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Skipper
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2003
Posts: 258
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Post by Skipper on Sept 21, 2004 14:42:31 GMT -5
Thanks all! I actually put the sodalite through polish on its own. The guy at the lapidary overheard me mentioning the issue and said right away - you overpolished - it only needs a few days.
I was going to go back and re-do, but never did. I might try another batch later. You know how it is...so many rocks and so little time.
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Post by Cher on Sept 21, 2004 20:59:13 GMT -5
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