Gettin crazy with the crazy lace - update with finished cabs

I agree with Tela. It’s hard to pick out a favorite when you were able to pull out so many cool patterns in those slabs. The contrast of patterns and the framing of the chaos in the middle of first one is great, but the third picture really has some cool depth as you sliced through the different levels.

It was a pretty large rock, shaped about like a 3" thick book.  I already had a bunch of slabs that look almost identical to the first photo, so I started cutting in other directions.  Cabbing slabs like those in the second photo are fun because of how the pattern changes when grinding the dome.  

Cutting through wavy layers (2nd and 3rd photos) is is almost always my favorite, whether the rock is crazy lace, a Montana agate, or just about anything else with layers, bands, or waves.  I even like doing it with plume agates, which turns well defined plumes (like some Graveyard Point plume agate) into something like snowflakes.    

When I have big rough I usually cut at least a few big slabs on my bigger saws.  Cutting big slabs is efficient, but I think big slabs are overrated for cabbing.  If it is a good large slab, I have to either mark out a ton of preforms and spend an hour on a trim saw cutting them all out, or I just mark out a few preforms and end up wasting a bunch of material.  

Once I'm bored cutting big slabs, if the rock is ok but not great, I just toss it aside.  But If I really like the rock, I block up the rest into pieces with around a 3" x 4" cross section.   That is the perfect cut for my 10" slab saw with a thin (0.04") kerf MK Diamond 303 blade.  I get very smooth flat cuts with the 10" MK303 blade when cutting these blocks since there is no blade deflection.  That's how all of the slabs in this thread were cut.  They are all cut around 0.24" thick, which means for every 6 cuts, I am only losing the equivalent of one slab to the blade.  

Thanks for showing the two different cuts! I've been doing this with most of my Mexican Lace rough.

You bring up a good point with regards to large slabs. I have a tendency to try and avoid cutting large slabs. I prefer the smaller slabettes for most of my rough because I agree with the amount of waste when it comes to the larger slabs...

Beautiful cab, holajonathan!

I'm learning to love the smallish oval (maybe 30mm x 20mm?).  It takes 1/4 as long from start to finish as my normal, huge cabs.  I know it's not a race, but I have a lot of slabs that I like, but don't love, and I can't see spending all day creating a couple cabs of that material.  

Me too.  With crazy lace, I prefer good patterns over in-your-face colors (if I have to choose). A little color is nice, but it's the geometric shapes and lacy patterns that I like most.  

jasoninsd

Liberate yourself, Jason. You've got enough slabs and preforms. Just cab the ones you love. It sure makes the process a lot more fun. And making so-so cabs is sort of frustrating.

Here are a few slabs I marked out last night.





They are all pretty big slabs, but in each case, I only saw one preform that demanded to be cut. I probably could have marked out 4 or 5 cabs per slabs, but I've got hundreds of slabs, so I don't see the point. I might end up marking out a few other little ones, but I'm going to cut out the one preform that I really want to cab, and to hell with the rest of the slab!

Yeah...see I'm staring at these and I'm seeing the "other" 3-4 potential cabs! LOL - Maybe you should just put a LFRB over in the corner of the work area and toss the "unused" sections of those slabs into it. Once it's full, you could just send it to me since it's just "waste"! LOL

Seriously though, you really could sell the "leftovers" for a decent price on eBay (or here) and definitely have a nice chunk towards even more material. 

I do get what you're saying about not using every square inch...but I do see some other potentials in those slabs. On the other hand, you're looking at them up close and are maybe seeing problem areas I'm not...

Yeah, they've got fractures or other problem spots.  A lot of the fractures look pretty solid, but seeing as I've got enough slabs to mark out 1000+ preforms without fractures, I don't see any point in making fractured cabs unless there is something so amazing about it that I can't resist.