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Post by stardiamond on Dec 12, 2023 21:08:17 GMT -5
I love the patterns of the Montana, and the last photo, flame agate? is wonderful. Thanks. It was sold as flame but I don't think it is Mexican flame. Most likely from Southern California. I buy slabs by their patterns and I only made one cab from the area I liked.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 11, 2023 22:06:11 GMT -5
If you can cut with all mineral oil, do so. Blades will last longer. If you cut with water use what you bought. When you need more Diamond Pacific water aid is my choice.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 11, 2023 17:25:53 GMT -5
Morgan Hill area from Martin Kramer.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 11, 2023 16:55:03 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 10, 2023 13:20:27 GMT -5
I like to be methodical when I buy. I have even taken screen shots of slabs and reduced them to actual to get a better idea of yield. My biggest buying mistakes there were not having a good idea of size on some small Guadalupe poppy jasper slabs. They set the price and it's bang, bang. No time to ask for size. I am very knowledgeable about price and quality for the material I am familiar with and I see bidders pay too much for lesser quality.
Overall, there quality for slabs is much better than facebook, or ebay. Rough is always a gamble no matter who you buy from and like many here, I prefer to buy slabs.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 9, 2023 20:43:19 GMT -5
Slabs are usually too pricey. Rough is too much of a gamble. I had two guys on ebay that collected and sold lots of nodules. Both had fishing in their ids. Neither are active now and what I see on ebay now is not good. This cab was from the HP auction. It was a single cab heel but I liked the pattern and it was only $8.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 9, 2023 20:19:24 GMT -5
I don't anything about that kind of material. I had a customer ask about Ray Mine Blue Dot Chrysocolla so I bought a chunk from Tanner.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 9, 2023 18:28:25 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 9, 2023 15:09:33 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 7, 2023 15:59:24 GMT -5
I overdid the buying this time. One thing I learned is that hard to judge size and since things sell fast I sometimes don't have the opportunity to ask for dimensions. The Guadalupe is a single cab slab and for what I paid not a good roi. Guadalupe is expensive and a tough find. I've accumulated enough to stop chasing it. Top picture is three specimen grade Coyamito agates that I will slab and bought on trust. The other is a fire agate nodule that I will play with. I have no experience with fire agates. It's a hobby and Ilike to play. Bottom picture is a faced El Sueco agate with a nice pattern which will produce 1 or 2 nice cabs. Also a Kentucky agate slab. I thought it might have broke but the pieces don't fit together.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 7, 2023 15:22:24 GMT -5
I bought a small Montana heel slab from the HP lapidary sale. I saw the pattern on the cut side and liked it. With heels, I start grinding the rough end to see how the pattern looks. When I don't like it, I flatten with the wheels and an end lap. I put a shape on it and started grinding. I need to remove scratches, sand and polish. It reminded me of this:
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 7, 2023 14:33:55 GMT -5
I know what I know and the rest I don't know. This slab was sold as flame agate. I know it isn't Mexican. My choices are Cady Mountain or Bullion Mountain.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 6, 2023 14:38:53 GMT -5
I bought some Guadalupe slabs at the HP lapidary auction. I could see the defects but couldn't judge the size so I overpaid. I bought some Linda Marie on Facebook and they were also smaller than expected the seller must have felt sorry for me and included a nice agate (bottom right).
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 5, 2023 16:09:52 GMT -5
I got the blue for free and made a test cab. The material is messy, stinky and there are a lot of cabs out there. I listed the cab on Etsy with a low price and don't expect to sell it. HP lapidary is selling a lot of the rough.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 5, 2023 15:14:33 GMT -5
I should also note or ask, the prior info we were getting about this was that yearly totals over $600 would be subject to reporting and taxation. But it appears now, that starting next year this amount is being upped to $5000. So this too is better, at least IMO The 1099-k is not an Etsy issue. They are complying with the IRS. This topic was started because Etsy wanted access to a users bank account.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 4, 2023 23:15:28 GMT -5
I've learned there isn't a one size fits all for polishing. Different materials do better with a different polish. I've been known to throw money at the hobby. The cerium Nova have a place, which is material that does better with cerium than diamond and has areas where the material would collect. A Nova wheel is around $100 and I don't think I would get a lot of use out of it. I haven't tried cerium. I've only used diamond paste, tin oxide and zam. I think I would start with the paste/powder on a pad before investing in a wheel.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 3, 2023 17:32:53 GMT -5
Bruneau is a tough find. I'm priced out of nice slabs and rough is frequently a gamble.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 3, 2023 15:01:32 GMT -5
Recently, I've noticed that Paypal has an option for credit card payment. Not the one they sponsor, but a user's card. So now when I get a paypal invoice, I pay with my credit card through paypal since I get cash back for each purchase.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 3, 2023 14:55:57 GMT -5
I've never been asked for my bank account information. Etsy makes deposits to my checking account and charges against a credit card. I've been on Etsy for more than three years.
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Post by stardiamond on Dec 3, 2023 14:02:55 GMT -5
There hasn't been any interest in these, so I took a better picture. If there isn't any interest, I will remove the post.
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