Post by dreamrocks on Nov 27, 2018 14:44:12 GMT -5
Picture #3 is with 600 grit when faceting the 600 lap is used for the step before the pre-polish 1200 lap to remove the scratches they all look pre-polished here you can see the beryl looking better then the quartz already.
#4. I am looking at how bad the mix of stones look after being polished I mixed a hand full of beryl crystals, facet rough Not knowing this could be a mistake. You can clearly see the quartz look very bad and beat up not shown well in this picture because of angle but the beryl did polish very good. I through them all back in 600 and re-tumbled again the beryl look better but the quartz really suck.
#5 is a maine cats eye beryl one of a half a dozen I through in the mix, the cats eye needed some touch up had very small scratches that needed the touch up and still do. So if anybody wants to know can you through beryl in with quartz and tumble it. Yes. However to polish the quartz the beryl has to come out by the 600 grit or sooner otherwise the beryl will polish and the quartz gets beat up bad.
#6 is a Mexican jelly opal that is pale yellowish and very little fire in the tip of the heart. I carved this by hand with a set of diamond files and 1200 wet&dry sand paper. In the photo I am checking to see how well is it going to fit in the sterling silver mounting, I marked any imperfections that needed to be removed it with a red or black felt tip marker. Once the marker is completely gone and can not be seen with the use of a jewelers loupe I can start a final finish sanding then polish. No it's not finished yet,to many other things to do one day I will come back to it and a few others and finish them all.
#7 & #8 are some of the beryl that went into the quartz tumble #7 is a small gemmy very light blue crystal from Brazil and now that it's been tumbled I can see it is facetable to. Before being tumbled I was not sure if it was facet material or not is the reason I tumbled it. The others are crappy maine beryl cabs one still has red maker in the light cracks that could be removed by more grinding/sanding I did these cabs when I broke in the cab king wheels when I first got my Xmas present from me to me. Best one ever!!!!
#9, 10, 11 are the first things I put in the flat lap there's a mix of bakers agates from New Mexico now closed I still have more to cut. Laguna agate, some blue tiger I believe this is also called hawks eye, and some people call it I can't spell it (crocotilite something like that) which I thought was something totally different.
# 10 this the Laguna geode that I replied to in fernwoods signature. I really did take my time looking it over for a long time before cutting it. I think I herd it saying to me! I am not just a nodule you know. Trust me I am not. The crystals were a good surprise but the other half had a bigger surprise in it golden needles of millerite now gone because the green horn that used a hose to wash all the stones from the flat lap blew them out with the hose.
I saw someone posted in a forum that they bought a flat lap if it was instructions they needed I have them and can put them up for every body. Only if I can get the upload working other wise I may have to email them to any one who wants them.
