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Post by opalpyrexia on Apr 9, 2019 16:38:43 GMT -5
This is my first experience cutting a poppy jasper slab and and also my first exposure to undercutting. The 1st and 5th cab took on a good polish with very minor undercuts, while the middle has an overall excellent polish. The larger 2nd and 4th cabs have what I consider to be objectionable undercutting in the lightest green areas. I really appreciated the recent posts on how to deal with undercutting, especially Tommy's. All of these cabs had gone through a complete, initial wheel sequence. After reading recent posts I took them all through again starting at 1200 and adding extra time on the higher grits. Finally, to see if I could improve the light green areas on cabs 2 and 4, I spent a solid 15 minutes at 3000 on just the light green area on the tip of the second cab. Here's a before and after —
I'm not sure if the after photo shows much difference although there is a slight improvement to the eye. The rest of those two cab's surfaces are so superior to their lightest greens that I don't believe that they are saleable as cabs. I might be able to sell them as pendants with high bezels covering some of the problem areas. The rest of the slab looks like it will cut and polish up pretty well, but of course what's left isn't very interesting.  |
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Post by Rockindad on Apr 9, 2019 17:10:23 GMT -5
That was a great post Tommy made, I just referenced it in another thread. REALLY like numbers 1 & 3.
Al
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Post by rockjunquie on Apr 9, 2019 18:35:19 GMT -5
Problems notwithstanding, it's stellar material! What is it? Is it the picture or did some of the poppies pop out? I have had that happen with OJ. I had a stone that finished like an avacado. It sold right away. You never know.  |
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Post by opalpyrexia on Apr 9, 2019 19:02:09 GMT -5
Problems notwithstanding, it's stellar material! What is it? Is it the picture or did some of the poppies pop out? I have had that happen with OJ. I had a stone that finished like an avacado. It sold right away. You never know. Per the U.S. seller, poppy bloodstone jasper from India. I didn't see any cavities from missing poppies as I cut.
Thanks for the encouragement. Your avocado sale is remarkable!
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Post by stephan on Apr 9, 2019 22:36:26 GMT -5
Poppy bloodstone jasper? That’s a new one to me. Gotta love the ever more creative trade names. At least it explains why it looks so different from any poppy jasper I’ve worked.
It also looks like it behaves very differently from CA material. I’ve worked with Morgan Hill, Hornitos and others. I’ve never had an issue with undercutting on that material. Fractures,yes, but not undercutting. I suggest you try some “real” poppy jasper before giving up on it.
That said, I love your cabs.
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Post by opalpyrexia on Apr 10, 2019 10:16:17 GMT -5
It also looks like it behaves very differently from CA material. I’ve worked with Morgan Hill, Hornitos and others. I’ve never had an issue with undercutting on that material. Fractures,yes, but not undercutting. I suggest you try some “real” poppy jasper before giving up on it. That said, I love your cabs.
Thanks for your encouragement, Stephen. I have a couple of Morgan Hill slabs that I was beginning to worry about because of this experience.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,504
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Post by Sabre52 on Apr 11, 2019 15:28:44 GMT -5
Yeah, you have to watch for that with Indian Fancy Jasper/Bloodstone. Bith are from different parts of the same deposit on the Deccan Plateau and intergrade. A lot of the jasper has very nice zones of concentric orbs or poppies and much of it is very well silicated and will not undercut. Occasionally you get one that has loose or incompletely silicated orbs and that's where the undercutting happens. I usually just chuck out those slabs as being too much work to fix because the better stuff is easy to find.....Mel
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Apr 11, 2019 23:24:51 GMT -5
I like those cabs. Even if there is some undercutting in parts, they are cool looking. Some stuff just undercuts and there's not too much you can do about it.
Do a search for orbicular bloodstone on Ebay. Lots of stuff out there.
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