Justin
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since April 2022
Posts: 76
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Post by Justin on Jul 25, 2022 9:40:15 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2022 13:03:04 GMT -5
Those are very nice cabs! Beautiful material too!  |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,496
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 25, 2022 13:30:25 GMT -5
Very nice. Are those last three Squires Ranch material from near Coalinga or the African stuff? Very nice brecciated jasper!
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Justin
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since April 2022
Posts: 76
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Post by Justin on Jul 25, 2022 17:30:43 GMT -5
Very nice. Are those last three Squires Ranch material from near Coalinga or the African stuff? Very nice brecciated jasper! I am not sure, I have to buy cabbing material off of eBay due to the lack of material in my area. I can tell you that it was called Lavic jasper in the description and upon further research found out that it is also called “Lavic siding” jasper, and I believe it comes from California. |
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Justin
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since April 2022
Posts: 76
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Post by Justin on Jul 25, 2022 17:32:21 GMT -5
Those are very nice cabs! Beautiful material too! Thank you! I meant to ask in my other thread, did you ever gather any nice quartz while you lived in VA? |
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Post by Starguy on Jul 25, 2022 18:11:10 GMT -5
Great looking cabs Justin. Thanks for showing. Excellent polish. All around they are all very fine cabs. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2022 19:19:40 GMT -5
JustinI didn’t. I moved away in 2009 when I joined the Army and wasn’t into rocks before. We have visited since and i have got some decent quartz and a bunch of mica and granite with mica. Can’t tumble the mica but it is special from when I was a kid. I loved mica when I was little. Im originally from the Henry County and Patrick County area.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jul 25, 2022 20:58:45 GMT -5
Justin - Congratulations! Way to present some VERY well polished cabs! I strive really hard to keep my symmetrical shapes...well...symmetrical. For me, this is completely reliant on the template and never deviating from the outline when I'm cutting out my preform. I shape my preform on the edge of the 7" trim saw blade. I know a lot of people shape theirs on the grinding wheels. Either way...you cannot deviate in the slightest. I draw my shapes using a VERY fine tipped Sharpie. I feel the smaller the line I have to follow, the less I'm going to deviate. I feel if I used a "fat" Sharpie, there's a LOT of "wiggle room" in the width of that line...
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Jul 25, 2022 21:19:13 GMT -5
Fine job on those cabs, especially for a newb!  You've got the polish thing down and look at you go with the wrapping! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2022 21:39:49 GMT -5
jasoninsdThats a good point Jason. I’m going to glean from your wisdom to some one else! Thank you.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jul 25, 2022 21:52:11 GMT -5
jasoninsd Thats a good point Jason. I’m going to glean from your wisdom to some one else! Thank you. Here we go with this wisdom hoo-hah again! LOL  If you're referring to the fine-tipped Sharpie, I'd recommend the black ink...and the "body" of the marker is grey and the cap is black. I've used fine-tipped Sharpies where the body of the marker and the cap are black...but for some reason, that ink didn't seem to be as good as the first one mentioned. If you're talking about shaping the preforms on the trim saw...one thing I did was I took an old plastic cutting board, cut it into about an 8" strip. Then I cut a "slot" into the middle of the board - so the blade had a spot to run. Then I clamp that cutting board on top of the trim saw so I have a "flat" surface to work the preform. I had to do this because my trim saw (tile saw) did NOT have a completely smooth surface. It had grooves in it which interfered with keeping the preform flat. Here's ANOTHER tip with it comes to marking out preforms. A lot of times dark colored material will NOT allow a black Sharpie to show up. So...I do a "rough" outline of the template shape with a metallic colored Sharpie (usually Silver) and I make it pretty wide. Then, I trace the stencil shape with the fine-tipped black Sharpie onto the top of the Silver colored Sharpie...that way you don't lose the outline in the dark colored material. I use the SAME process on the edge of the dark preforms when I'm doing the girdle line...I color the whole edge of the preform silver...then draw the girdle line with the fine-tipped Sharpie. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2022 22:01:56 GMT -5
jasoninsdMan Jason listen to all that wisdom you just shared! Those are all really helpful and things I wouldn’t have thought of. My tile saw has grooves too so I’ll have to find a cutting board to chop up. Thanks Jason!
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Justin
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since April 2022
Posts: 76
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Post by Justin on Jul 25, 2022 23:14:55 GMT -5
Justin Can’t tumble the mica but it is special from when I was a kid. I loved mica when I was little. Im originally from the Henry County and Patrick County area. Holy cow!!! I am a bit embarrassed to admit this, but before this response, I had never known anything about Mica. It’s incredible! 😊 I’ve been down a Wikipedia rabbit hole for the past 30 minutes 😂 |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2022 23:22:28 GMT -5
JustinLol, well Im glad I could help you with your rabbit hole! 😆 You probably have some near you too! Its such cool material and always bring childhood nostalgia for me!
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Justin
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since April 2022
Posts: 76
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Post by Justin on Jul 25, 2022 23:30:28 GMT -5
Ah, I’m sorry in advance, I don’t know how to reply individually to comments, but Ashley, if you have (and I’m sure you do) a Ross or TJ Max near you, that’s the best place to get cutting boards! They are cheap, usually come in a 3 pack, made of tool grade plastic, and are thick enough that you don’t have to worry about them flexing while you’ve got them on top of your saw!
Also, as a note on cutting boards, I sit one on top of my drill press and use it to keep rust from building on the table while drilling rocks. You can also use a Fostner bit to make a shallow well to hold water while you are working on pieces too!
Now Jason…. When you say that you shape your preforms on the side of a trim saw, can you elaborate a little more on that? I have been attempting to get both sides of a cab symmetrical and I always seem to have one side that is straight and one that is round. It drives me nuts. I would like to try your approach but I’m having trouble envisioning what you are doing. Again, I apologize, I am EXTREMELY new to all things lapidary.
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Post by jasoninsd on Jul 26, 2022 1:07:26 GMT -5
Ah, I’m sorry in advance, I don’t know how to reply individually to comments, but Ashley, if you have (and I’m sure you do) a Ross or TJ Max near you, that’s the best place to get cutting boards! They are cheap, usually come in a 3 pack, made of tool grade plastic, and are thick enough that you don’t have to worry about them flexing while you’ve got them on top of your saw! Also, as a note on cutting boards, I sit one on top of my drill press and use it to keep rust from building on the table while drilling rocks. You can also use a Fostner bit to make a shallow well to hold water while you are working on pieces too! Now Jason…. When you say that you shape your preforms on the side of a trim saw, can you elaborate a little more on that? I have been attempting to get both sides of a cab symmetrical and I always seem to have one side that is straight and one that is round. It drives me nuts. I would like to try your approach but I’m having trouble envisioning what you are doing. Again, I apologize, I am EXTREMELY new to all things lapidary. In order to reply to a person's post, hit the "Quote" button in their post (top right). It'll take you to the Reply page. There will be a box with that person's quote in it. Type your reply BELOW that box. In order to reply to several people's posts, click on the drop down menu button (just to the right of the thumbs up in the top right of the person's quote). Click on "Select Post". Do this for every person's post you want to reply. Once you have them all selected, hit the "REPLY" button at the bottom of the thread...just above the "Quick Reply" box that you can type in. This will take you to the Reply page. Again, type your response to each person's post BELOW the box their quote is in. As far as shaping. I cut the preform shapes out using the saw "normally". I try to get them as close to the line of the stencil as I can without chipping the material. Then, while keeping the preforms flat on the table surface (in my case the cutting board). I use the EDGE of the blade to "grind" the shape to the stencil line. If you're not using a stencil to mark your shapes...and you're only "free-handing" your shapes, then I've got no advice on how to keep the symmetry. Personally, I would find it near impossible to keep the symmetry I do WITHOUT using a stenciled shape and following the lines... |
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Post by rockjunquie on Jul 26, 2022 6:13:32 GMT -5
You have to be careful with sharpie. It can bleed and run on your cab. It can also sink into porous cabs. I almost always use a pencil.
Justin- those are some stellar cabs, newbie or not and your wrapping looks really great, too. Onward and upward! |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,496
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 26, 2022 16:29:32 GMT -5
Lots of brecciated jasp-agate at Lavic all right. I've hunted there many times. To me it looks atypical for Lavic, more like Franciscan Formation breccia. If I had to guess, I'd say Parkfield, Creston, Stoney Creek, or Squires ranch for your examples. Also all California sites.
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Post by Son Of Beach on Jul 26, 2022 16:33:48 GMT -5
Awesome work 
Really digging the last one in the middle, instant eye catcher.
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Justin
noticing nice landscape pebbles
Member since April 2022
Posts: 76
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Post by Justin on Jul 27, 2022 11:44:10 GMT -5
You have to be careful with sharpie. It can bleed and run on your cab. It can also sink into porous cabs. I almost always use a pencil.
Justin- those are some stellar cabs, newbie or not and your wrapping looks really great, too. Onward and upward! That’s pretty awesome to hear coming from you, I’ve been reading the forum for awhile (thanks to Michigan Rocks of YouTube for leading me here) so a compliment from The Godfather of RTH feels pretty incredible. Thank you to EVERYONE. I’ve gotten phenomenal congratulations and great advice from so many knowledgeable people already; and to that point, Jason, I see what you mean now about grinding on the side of the blade. I’m going to give it a shot on my next cab. I, however, did not get to try it out on my contest entry, I was afraid because of how small the pieces were going to be. Lots of brecciated jasp-agate at Lavic all right. I've hunted there many times. To me it looks atypical for Lavic, more like Franciscan Formation breccia. If I had to guess, I'd say Parkfield, Creston, Stoney Creek, or Squires ranch for your examples. Also all California sites. I’d love to go hunt there one day myself. Now, much like with Ashley’s comment about Mica, I have to go research everything you just said. I actually bought that slab because my wife said she was sick of looking at bumblebee jasper! To keep her from giving me that look of disappointment the next time a package arrived I panic ordered a slab that I thought she would like. Turned out that an oval stone cab from that slab was the first piece someone bought from me Awesome work
Really digging the last one in the middle, instant eye catcher.
Thank you! It was originally going to be about 30% smaller but I noticed the bottom point was translucent so I had to (semi) freeform it to keep that in there. |
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You've got the polish thing down and look at you go with the wrapping! 
