Doublettes

realrockhound

If you want a black backing, I've got is a very fine grained, very solid, black basalt that works well. I can't think of the name at the moment, but someone will chime in I'm sure. It's a very common material for backing doublets.

I think I got mine here:

stoneageindustries.com/product/black-chalcedony-onyx-slabs/

I know they are calling it black chalcedony. What the sent me is not chalcedony, but it is exactly what I wanted for doublets, so I'm not complaining. If you only need one or two thin pieces of black backing material, send me your address and I'll send you some.

You can really use anything.
I've seen plastic, glass, solid color stones such as Lapis.
I guess it depends on what look you want to achieve.

This is what I was thinking tbh. I have material that is far too thin to make a standard domed cab, so was thinking of going this route. But for the color backings, I was curious if there was a specific type of material that people buy in particular. I was going to buy some crap off Amazon, but wanted to see what everyone else uses.

realrockhound Basenite is popular to use for backing cabs that are fragile or are prone to cracking along fracture lines and for making doublets or triplets.  It's a stable material that works well for those applications.  You can also use plain black obsidian or any other hardier material that suits your fancy.  If the material you want to make a doublet out of is transparent, you will need to pay attention to the color of the backing you use.

If you use a quartz top, the quartz will magnify the patterns (and imperfections, if any) on the top of the stone.

I use Australian black jade for opal doublets. It's my understanding that it's actually actinolite. It takes a high polish if used alone as cabs.

realrockhound

Ok, so what I posted earlier is basenite, I think. I like dark red Mookaite as a backing material.

Have you seen these threads from Bikerrandy ? Great examples of plume agate doublets with different backing materials:

forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/70725/more-doublets-show-off
forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/thread/63791/tutorial-on-moss-agate-doublets

You cans see all of his doublets here -- quite a feast for the eyes:

www.facebook.com/Rock-Hobby-282375391773191/photos?tab=album&album_id=938382186172505

Thanks for posting this Jonathan, I didn't quite understand what you guys were talking about.  Clear as day now.

It seems to me that stoner also posted wonderful backed cabs.

stoner. Ed Orekar

I have used Basanite, but lately I've used black argylite (sp?) from somewhere in the coast range near the CA border. I also just slabbed up some black AZ wood that looks promising. Best thing I've found for white is the bone white opaque material from the polkadot mine, just have to work around the dots.