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Post by holajonathan on Oct 16, 2021 2:02:13 GMT -5
I got this dendritic opal rough from Randy ( RWA3006 ) together with some Jackson Peak agates. Randy mined these rocks from a rhyolite flow near St. George, Utah. I love tihs material. Like a lot of dendritic opal, there are plenty of fractures, but definitely worth working around. None of these have gotten final polish yet. Only took them through the 3000 grit wheel. Utah Dendritic Opal
  AZ Pet WoodHigh dome practice cab   Quartzite from the field behind my houseGood for practicing dome shapes since it grinds fast and predictably.  Jasper - Mexico
 Group Shot The Fallen Soldier -- Purple Mexican agate with red moss and white banding Broke in half on the 3000 wheel. Why can't they break sooner?   |
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 16, 2021 6:26:00 GMT -5
Your shield came out nice! Love the dendritic opal. But, I like that fieldstone, too. Nice stone to practice on.
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Post by jasoninsd on Oct 16, 2021 8:48:52 GMT -5
Beautiful shine on those even just going through the 3000 wheel!  That Dendritic Opal looks particularly spectacular! |
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Oct 16, 2021 9:12:48 GMT -5
Nice cabs! The pet wood took a superb shine!
Too bad about the Mexican agate. They will break in half earlier if you whack 'em on your bench top first.  |
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 16, 2021 10:12:55 GMT -5
Your shield came out nice! Love the dendritic opal. But, I like that fieldstone, too. Nice stone to practice on. All those needing to practice shaping cabs should get a bunch of slabs of a rock that is soft but solid. With the quartzite I can rough out a dome in 5 minutes that would take a half hour on a Montana agate. I polished this piece just for fun, but I have a whole bunch more than I used for practice with the hard wheels only. Maybe I'll offer up some slabs as free learning tools to anyone who wants to pay for shipping. I've got tons of the stuff. |
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 16, 2021 10:17:01 GMT -5
Beautiful shine on those even just going through the 3000 wheel! That Dendritic Opal looks particularly spectacular! THanks, Jason. The opal is my favorite by far. The others were practice more than anything. If I really do the work on the 280 resin wheel, most rocks get 90%+ of their potential shine by the 3000 wheel. Some hard agates -- Montana agates in particular -- are very shiny after the 1200 wheel, and don't get much shiner after that. With Montana agates, I can't see much difference using the 14,000 spin on diamond disc that came with my Genie, or from final polish with submicron AO. But I do use them just in case. |
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 16, 2021 10:19:45 GMT -5
Nice cabs! The pet wood took a superb shine!
Too bad about the Mexican agate. They will break in half earlier if you whack 'em on your bench top first. Oh I do, trust me. In this case, there was originally some agate around the edges of the quartz area that split in half. I ground away that agate when refining the shape. So it's my fault. |
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Post by Starguy on Oct 16, 2021 11:15:45 GMT -5
Your domes and girdles look excellent! Nice job.
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 16, 2021 11:56:25 GMT -5
Your domes and girdles look excellent! Nice job. I'm improving. Thanks for your advice a few days ago. |
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Post by stephan on Oct 16, 2021 20:57:13 GMT -5
Wow! only to 3000? that's amazing. The broken one can definitely be salvaged. I like the shapes a lot. The dendritic opal is very cool.
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 16, 2021 23:17:05 GMT -5
Wow! only to 3000? that's amazing. The broken one can definitely be salvaged. I like the shapes a lot. The dendritic opal is very cool. By salvaged do you mean glued together? What's not clear from the photo is that it is quite small. So two rescue cabs are probably out of the question, unless I want a paid of asymmetrical earrings. Hard rocks shine great for me on the 3000 wheel if I get absolutely every scratch out before leaving the 280. It's the softer rocks, in my experience, that benefit most from finer grit diamonds of polishing powder (cerium or AO). After the 3000 wheel, my only diamond option is the 14,000 grit Nova spin on disc. I use that sometimes, but I can't tell much of a difference if I skip it and go right to polish on rawhide. |
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Post by jasoninsd on Oct 17, 2021 0:28:18 GMT -5
Wow! only to 3000? that's amazing. The broken one can definitely be salvaged. I like the shapes a lot. The dendritic opal is very cool. Wow! only to 3000? that's amazing. The broken one can definitely be salvaged. I like the shapes a lot. The dendritic opal is very cool. By salvaged do you mean glued together? What's not clear from the photo is that it is quite small. So two rescue cabs are probably out of the question, unless I want a paid of asymmetrical earrings. Hard rocks shine great for me on the 3000 wheel if I get absolutely every scratch out before leaving the 280. It's the softer rocks, in my experience, that benefit most from finer grit diamonds of polishing powder (cerium or AO). After the 3000 wheel, my only diamond option is the 14,000 grit Nova spin on disc. I use that sometimes, but I can't tell much of a difference if I skip it and go right to polish on rawhide.  |
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Post by stephan on Oct 17, 2021 21:14:02 GMT -5
Gluing together isn’t really my thing. The Japanese art of kintsugi (fixing broken ceramics with gold) could provide a baseline idea (either gold or silver could work). That isn’t really what I was thinking, though. It was more along the lines os of rescuing the larger piece — a small teardrop, shield, tongue or free form would all work. Asymmetrical earrings wouldn’t be a horrible idea if there was more going on with the small piece. Or small pieces to be set into pendants brotherbill-style. Lots of options, but, mainly, I was just saying it was possible. I broke one awhile back, and hummingbirdstones planted the suggestion of fixing with silver. I’ve been thinking about that ever since, and might have a way to do that soon. |
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Post by holajonathan on Oct 17, 2021 23:42:31 GMT -5
Gluing together isn’t really my thing. The Japanese art of kintsugi (fixing broken ceramics with gold) could provide a baseline idea (either gold or silver could work). That isn’t really what I was thinking, though. It was more along the lines os of rescuing the larger piece — a small teardrop, shield, tongue or free form would all work. Asymmetrical earrings wouldn’t be a horrible idea if there was more going on with the small piece. Or small pieces to be set into pendants brotherbill-style. Lots of options, but, mainly, I was just saying it was possible. I broke one awhile back, and hummingbirdstones planted the suggestion of fixing with silver. I’ve been thinking about that ever since, and might have a way to do that soon. Interesting ideas. I actually have a bunch of scrap gold, and I think I can melt it with a butane torch. Gold might not compliment the broken agate posted in this thread, but you've got me thinking... |
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Post by jasoninsd on Oct 17, 2021 23:52:36 GMT -5
Gluing together isn’t really my thing. The Japanese art of kintsugi (fixing broken ceramics with gold) could provide a baseline idea (either gold or silver could work). That isn’t really what I was thinking, though. It was more along the lines os of rescuing the larger piece — a small teardrop, shield, tongue or free form would all work. Asymmetrical earrings wouldn’t be a horrible idea if there was more going on with the small piece. Or small pieces to be set into pendants brotherbill-style. Lots of options, but, mainly, I was just saying it was possible. I broke one awhile back, and hummingbirdstones planted the suggestion of fixing with silver. I’ve been thinking about that ever since, and might have a way to do that soon. Interesting ideas. I actually have a bunch of scrap gold, and I think I can melt it with a butane torch. Gold might not compliment the broken agate posted in this thread, but you've got me thinking... I'm definitely hoping you're going to post pictures if you try this! |
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Post by stephan on Oct 18, 2021 14:36:42 GMT -5
Gluing together isn’t really my thing. The Japanese art of kintsugi (fixing broken ceramics with gold) could provide a baseline idea (either gold or silver could work). That isn’t really what I was thinking, though. It was more along the lines os of rescuing the larger piece — a small teardrop, shield, tongue or free form would all work. Asymmetrical earrings wouldn’t be a horrible idea if there was more going on with the small piece. Or small pieces to be set into pendants brotherbill-style. Lots of options, but, mainly, I was just saying it was possible. I broke one awhile back, and hummingbirdstones planted the suggestion of fixing with silver. I’ve been thinking about that ever since, and might have a way to do that soon. Interesting ideas. I actually have a bunch of scrap gold, and I think I can melt it with a butane torch. Gold might not compliment the broken agate posted in this thread, but you've got me thinking... Yep, silver might be a better complement than gold (plus, I like it better anyway), or the seed may sprout in a completely different direction. |
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Post by rockjunquie on Oct 18, 2021 14:53:21 GMT -5
holajonathan I love those sharp points. It gave me immense satisfaction to pull off nice crisp points... but it turns out that silversmithers prefer that corners be eased a little to help with setting. I primarily wrap and I prefer a nice point, so it never really occurred to me to do it any other way until it was mentioned to me a few times on the forum a while back. So, now, I almost always ease the corners a bit. I can wrap either way and still make the silversmiths happy.
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