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Post by stardiamond on Jul 21, 2023 14:00:03 GMT -5
The top two and bottom right resemble pictures of Crowley I found. I just thought the others were worth grinding and polishing.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 20, 2023 22:34:03 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 20, 2023 21:50:38 GMT -5
The only agates I am familiar with are dryhead, botswana, Montana and a US banded agate (not prairie, Superior of Fairburn). I looked up Crowley and saw something that looked like the piece on the right of the picture.
I think it is reasonable to think some of them are. I was not attracted to a lot of the pictures of Crowley agates. I have a smaller one with a very nice pattern that I will post when the light is good.
Revision: Looking at Etsy and ebay, I believe a lot of them are Crowley. My perspective is cabbing material and to me they look like lumps with acne.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 20, 2023 20:14:32 GMT -5
I have extensive experience working with this material, previously only slabs. With slabs, I mark the fractures or possible fractures and then cross my fingers. I started on the smaller piece and after all the fractures, I made a 23x18 preform which is dopped and the girdle marked. On the larger piece, I noticed the sides flaking when marking with a sharpie. I coated the edges with starbond and now am grinding down the back to make the preform thinner. Everything is solid.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 20, 2023 19:05:01 GMT -5
Catmandewe here and Tony at FB Fullmoon had a piece of gem Owyhee on auction. The listing picture didn't show much but I'm always looking for gem Owyhee. This is the listing picture: It arrived today and this is a picture of the rough: There is only one orientation to cut so I took two slices from the middle to get the widest slabs. Picture is the two slabs and the two heels.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 20, 2023 17:57:10 GMT -5
I think he’s showing fractures we have a winner.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 20, 2023 17:20:50 GMT -5
The agates arrived. I put three in the saw and started to face polish one. IF I continue face polishing I will need to buy a new top 80 textured. I just started. One is still in the saw. I'll cut some more when motivated. I don't usually face polish. I did this one to 325 soft and wet of the wheels.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 20, 2023 15:39:57 GMT -5
Skipping rocks on water. My wife was interested in new age stuff; Rikei with the metaphysical qualities of crystals and minerals. She liked to collect and moved on to rough, slabs and cabochons. I knew how to work with wood and was interested in photography so I thought I could turn slabs into cabs.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 19, 2023 21:54:59 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 19, 2023 15:36:01 GMT -5
3.2x1.75x1.75 inches and weighs 7.12 oz. What is distinct with this material is the rattlesnake pattern. Not all of a piece will have it and Royal Flamingo and Red Howardite, the more recent dug material don't. The only issue is the yield since a cab needs to have a lot of the snake. \ This material fractures and I'm not sure if stabilization would help. I put a new blade in the trim saw and pushed the material through slowly. The rattlesnake separated from the non rattlesnake and I ended up with this: I can make four preforms one full rs, one partial rs, and two non rs. All the preforms could end up fracturing but I'm optimistic that I can atleast break even. I'm sure to break even but I don't know if I can reach my goal of cab value being 3 times cost of material.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 19, 2023 13:42:25 GMT -5
I was right on the id; old stock Howardite. 3.2x1.75x1.75 inches and weighs 7.12 oz. What is distinct with this material is the rattlesnake pattern. Not all of a piece will have it and Royal Flamingo and Red Howardite, the more recent dug material don't. The only issue is the yield since a cab needs to have a lot of the snake. I'm sure to break even but I don't know if I can reach my goal of cab value being 3 times cost of material.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 19, 2023 12:17:39 GMT -5
An important part of my buying lapidary material is communication with the seller. Both parties can figure out how to make things work.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 18, 2023 21:04:37 GMT -5
I was concerned about a health issue and wasn't scheduled for a diagnostic procedure until Sunday. I went to the ER and had blood tests and a CT scan. Everything is good so I'm back to the usual aches and pains.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 18, 2023 12:53:48 GMT -5
Out of a billion people, there are only a billion kinds, but . . . How many are just trying to survive? No time for anything else. How many have wealthy parents and their lives are spent in partying? How many fear and MUST BE in control? I think as children we all learned to love beautiful things, art, music, dance, rocks. Which love did we keep? I enjoy the arts. My local rocks are adobe clay and sandstone. My experience as a youngster with rocks was skipping them in water and digging for gypsum crystals.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 17, 2023 21:37:22 GMT -5
After looking for it on ebay and Etsy, I found it is fairly rare and expensive. Looking at a lot of slabs, I would say I got lower grade material. It was free so I can't complain. What is missing from my slab is distinct plumes, more blobby. When I buy Stinking Water I look for clear agate and distinct plumes not blobby.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 17, 2023 21:24:22 GMT -5
Tumbling?Take a beautiful rock, hit it with a hammer, shatter the beauty, toss it into a tumbler, like tumbling down a stream, no control over the outcome. whatever happens - happens. Give the results to someone, and they lose it. all for what? Cabbing?Take a beautiful rock. Which way to slab it will bring out the best results? Finally the slabs are cut without badly grooving them. Look at all the wonderful patterns. Can't cab this, too beautiful the way it is! Polish the slab. Oh, here is a pattern that would look good in a - Bolo, bracelet, pendant, ring, earring - That is worth the effort to make a perfect cab! Once I have laid out a design on a slab I'm not all that interested unless something goes wrong and then I'm in problem solving mode. If I took a preform and tossed it in a tumbler I'd be fairly happy with the results because the end result will have a similar appearance to something I ground. I've never tumbled and am not interested in learning because I have a lot of equipment to make cabs. I have bought tumbled pieces and what I see that is inferior to grinding is lack of control; irregular edges and pitting.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 17, 2023 17:48:29 GMT -5
Graveyard Point, Regency Rose, Pink Lady and who knows what else. There's Dead Camel, Red Camel, Dead Ringer. Blue Dream, Mescalero and crossovers.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 17, 2023 17:19:09 GMT -5
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 17, 2023 16:17:01 GMT -5
Thighgate plume. The lesser known cousins to wingate plume agate I divide material into two groups; those with a pattern like picture jasper and those with a repeating pattern like Leopardskin or peanut obsidian. I prefer to work with picture jaspers so I have more knowledge of them than all the plumes. I assume Wingate Pass is located in the Chickenshit Mountains.
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Post by stardiamond on Jul 17, 2023 12:44:02 GMT -5
Any ideas?
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