Skipper
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2003
Posts: 258
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Post by Skipper on Dec 13, 2004 23:36:13 GMT -5
Well, my order from stone age industries arrived and I am thrilled! There will be more postings to come, I'm sure! Anyhoo, I now need to break this stuff down into tumbling size. I have two major chunks of blue lace. However, in the one pictured here, there is a significant "seam" running through the middle. You can just see the deepest part of the "hole" on the left side. It is narrow, but continues to run halfway across the rock. I'm concerned that when I bash it, it will split in two. Can anybody who has worked with this stuff before offer some guidance? Perhaps I should just break it along that crack.  |
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Post by Toad on Dec 14, 2004 5:49:30 GMT -5
If you want to break it down to tumbling size, don't you want it to break in two?
Seems to me that a fault in the rock makes your job easier.
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rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Dec 14, 2004 11:24:37 GMT -5
I think he wants to break it into pieces vertically as that would make for nicer tumbled stones, but the seam is going to make it break horizontally. Short of using a saw, I don't see anyway to guarantee vertical breaks. Just use a nice sharp chisel and hope for the best.
If the seam really does run through half of the stone you may end up having to break that half into horizontal pieces anyway because the seam would end up as pits in the stones that would trap grit and mess up the tumble.
Some thoughts anyway.
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Skipper
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2003
Posts: 258
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Post by Skipper on Dec 14, 2004 15:33:48 GMT -5
Good thoughts! yes, I was wanting a vertical cut. I'll take it to a friend's place and put some saw marks into it so i can drive my chisel through. At lease I can try and break just beyond the seam so it doesn't bust the whole thing in two horizontally.
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Post by Toad on Dec 14, 2004 19:07:15 GMT -5
I see what you mean now. That will teach me to get on line before the sun comes up.
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Post by Skipper on Dec 19, 2004 22:58:05 GMT -5
I am a complete rookie here, so take what I say with lots of "rock" salt.
If you are going to employ the use of a saw, why not cut right throught the stone once and make sure you cut where the seem and hole are. I think if you can cut right throug hit you may actually uncover a beautiful natural occurence of a fault and use it to your advantage. Just a thought...I have done this in woodworking before, using a knot and accentuating its presence in the entire piece of furniture I made.
Please let us know how you made out, a very nice looking stone.
Guy
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billyd
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2004
Posts: 157
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Post by billyd on Jan 8, 2005 22:50:38 GMT -5
hello skipper i m going to visit family in prince edward island in may do you know if there are any places on the
island that have interesting stones or minerals that i can collect when on holiday.
would you like some stones from montrose to tumble
billy.d
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Post by cookie3rocks on Jan 8, 2005 23:38:20 GMT -5
Hey Skip,
I got some beautiful blue lace from Ebay I had high hopes for. When I started breaking it up I realized that the center (pobably where your fault line is) was very "druzy", lots of small crystals like the center of a geode. It didn't tumble as well as I would have liked. I plan to beak and/or cut it up up again and re do it. It has amazing potential. I got it when I first began and didn't really know what to do with it. I would say take it to your friend and cut it verticaly and see what you get.
Good Luck!
cookie
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Skipper
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2003
Posts: 258
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Post by Skipper on Jan 11, 2005 13:49:20 GMT -5
Well, we put that baby under the saw. Man is it hard!!! Took a while to put notches in it and then broke really nicely. The seam did not end up splitting right across, so should be some good tumbling material. Stay tuned...
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