Practice tip for doming / shaping cabs
Oct 17, 2021 13:21:48 GMT -5
adrian65, mohs, and 10 more like this
Post by holajonathan on Oct 17, 2021 13:21:48 GMT -5
A tip for those who are working to perfect cab shapes / domes / girdles: get some slabs of quartzite or another rock that grinds quickly and evenly.
I recently slabbed quartzite fieldstones for this purpose. Fine grained quartzite grinds fast and predictably. Before I slabbed the quartzite, I was using hard agates and jaspers for practice. The quartzite is a huge time saver. But more importantly, it provides almost instant feedback. A lot of things really started clicking for me when I was able to apply a certain technique and see the results immediately.
Here I used quartzite to practice doming a tricky shape -- an irregular triangle with a concave angle on one side. The steps below were completed in about 10 minutes, which included a careful inspection between each step.
First bevel cut:
Second bevel cut
Third bevel cut, overlapping in the middle.
Dome Evened Out with 80 Grit Wheel
Domed evened further with 220 grit hard wheel
That is as far as I took it. The dome and girdle are not perfect, but a big improvement over many cab I have made.
I have polished a few of these quartzite practice cabs just for fun.
I've ground the rough domes on about 20 quartzite practice cabs in the past week. I haven't spent more than 4 hours on them -- a small time investment for how much I have learned.
Thank you to rockjunquie stardiamond Starguy parfive jasoninsd fencejumper and others who have offered me advice in various recent threads.
Although not a tough shape to dome, this Royal Imperial Jasper cab (made yesterday) has the best dome of any cab I have cut. The warmth of peachy-creamy-pink color and wide bands give the cab an ethereal quality.
I recently slabbed quartzite fieldstones for this purpose. Fine grained quartzite grinds fast and predictably. Before I slabbed the quartzite, I was using hard agates and jaspers for practice. The quartzite is a huge time saver. But more importantly, it provides almost instant feedback. A lot of things really started clicking for me when I was able to apply a certain technique and see the results immediately.
Here I used quartzite to practice doming a tricky shape -- an irregular triangle with a concave angle on one side. The steps below were completed in about 10 minutes, which included a careful inspection between each step.
First bevel cut:
Second bevel cut
Third bevel cut, overlapping in the middle.
Dome Evened Out with 80 Grit Wheel
Domed evened further with 220 grit hard wheel
That is as far as I took it. The dome and girdle are not perfect, but a big improvement over many cab I have made.
I have polished a few of these quartzite practice cabs just for fun.
I've ground the rough domes on about 20 quartzite practice cabs in the past week. I haven't spent more than 4 hours on them -- a small time investment for how much I have learned.
Thank you to rockjunquie stardiamond Starguy parfive jasoninsd fencejumper and others who have offered me advice in various recent threads.
Although not a tough shape to dome, this Royal Imperial Jasper cab (made yesterday) has the best dome of any cab I have cut. The warmth of peachy-creamy-pink color and wide bands give the cab an ethereal quality.
