Gemstone Cabochons and Custom Jewelry Design - Lapidary

I had only cabbed some Wonderstone Rhyolite one time back when first learning to cab. Took me a while to learn that the polishing difficulties I was having were not me, but the lack of silica content in the Wonderstone. As a result did not think would purchase again until I met Linna of Stone Age Industries via their Facebook page.

Linna had posted some pics of some beautiful looking Wonderstone.



We started talking a bit on Facebook. I had commented about one and only polishing experience, and had mentioned how a member of my forum had success with a Holy Cow and vinegar mix for polishine this particular mineral. Linna then asked if I would mind doing a little experiment for her and compare a final polish using tin oxide on one cab, and the Holy Cow/vinegar mix on another so she might be able to share how to potentially aquire a nice polish on what is normaly a difficult material.

Turned out to be a neat experiment and really changed my perception on purchasing more Wonderstone for future cabbing !

Here are a few comparison pics. The shield cab is a tin oxide polish verses the oval that I used the Holy Cow/vinegar mixture. Which by the way is mixed the same as the oxide. Sort of creamy... I do use a synthetic leather instead of cow or elk hide for my polishing. Same here..





Linna wrote a great little article about our little Wonderstone polishing experiment as well..

As of this blog entry I am pretty sure that Stone Age Industries is still offering a few remaining slabs of this Wonderstone. It is worth noting that I noticed these slabs were quite a bit higher quality than the material I had previously worked. Much more dense than the more porous material I have seen. Even just using the oxide polish, the end result was much better with these particular slabs of theirs.

I was left with enough remaining material from these two slabs that pretty excited about cabbing more for customer jewelry designs as well as my own jewelry !

You can contact Linna at Stone Age Industries for info about available slabs.

Check Out Our Bi-Monthly "Killer" Gemstone Cabochon Contests !

For those not familiar with how these contests work.
We include a pic of the original slab, then a pic of the preform, and finally, the finished cab.
Please try to remember at least a pic or two of the original slab and or preform..
Feel free to share with us what ever you like about the mineral, and or what ever else you would like to share.
You can enter any shape cab and your choice of mineral. Things like intarsias, and composite type cabs can not be entered in an effort to keep the contest somewhat fair by just entering free form style cabs. :)
Remember, this is all in fun. Just a little something we do together as a group. Sure, there is a cheesy slab that goes to the winner, but it is much more about just joining as a group, and having some fun.

Bill Kappele had a neat article in the Rock and Gem magazine. The photo at the top of the article showed some very unusual looking dops. Almost like clothes pins.
He also mentioned in the tail end of the article about having great success with a vacuum dop. My interest was peaked and had to drop him a line.
He kindly returned an email.. He mentioned an old 2000 article which he included.
The tail end of the article gives a nice easy to understand description on how to make one. I also mentioned a desire to add something similar to my Colbaugh semi cabbing unit. He mentioned "vacuum chucks". I did a search, but not seeing anything that would be very easy to incorporate.
Also during a Google search, came upon a patent for a vacuum dop from way back in the 1970's. Can't tell what the status of it is.
Any way, the process and items needed to give Bill's vacuum dop a whirl is towards the bottom of his article below.
He mentions that "the toughest part of the project is making the gasket which fits between the head of the dop and the cab".
Maybe there could be a simpler gasket idea ??

Thank you Bill !

A VACUUM DOP STICK
Break the Spell and Make Your Life Easier by William A. Kappele

Once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away there lived an evil sorcerer. So evil was he, that he spent all of his days and most of his nights thinking of ways to make men's lives miserable. Now it seems that in this kingdom were many men who eked out a
meager living by cutting and grinding stones which they found in the surrounding hills into what they called cabochons. The task was very tedious at best, and was made particularly so by the fact that they had to hold the little stones in their bare hands while
they ground and polished. They often ground their knuckles and this was very painful. They accepted this, though, because stones had always been ground and polished that way.
Well, it would seem that the rock grinders' lives were miserable enough, but the evil sorcerer thought he had found a way to increase their misery index substantially. One day, he disguised himself as a traveling salesman and gathered all of the
stone grinders together for a sales pitch. Because he was a sorcerer, he had a distinct advantage over the ordinary traveling salesman, though. He cast a spell over the rock grinders so that they would believe anything he said. What he said was this: "Take
these little sticks (He called them dop sticks.) and I will show you a way to attach your stones to them so that you will be able to grind and polish without pain." Even though they were under a spell, they looked at one another with great suspicion. The
sorcerer then reached under his magic robe and produced a small alcohol lamp, a lump of greenish goo and one of the small "dop" sticks. He lit the lamp and asked one of the stone grinders for a stone. After heating the green goo (He called it dope wax, but through a glitch in the spell, the stone grinders heard it as dop, like the stick.), he melted some of it on the end of the stick and on the stone. He then joined them into what seemed like a solid bond. The stone grinders were ecstatic. Now, they thought, theywould be able to grind and polish away without the pain - how wrong they were.
Since that day, so long ago and far away stone grinders have cursed and raged over stones that wouldn't stick to the dop, stones that flew in the air, stones that crashed to the floor and broke, and stones that broke when being removed from the dop stick. The
pain of grinding their knuckles was replaced with the pain of encounters with hot wax and alcohol flames. But still they persist in this misery. It is as though they are under a spell.
Well, some of us broke the spell with double-faced tape quite a few years ago, but even this pales in comparison to the vacuum dop. Making the dop is about as simple as a project can get. The head is a piece of aluminum about 3/16" thick, but the thickness is
not critical. It must be thick enough to allow a 1/2" counterbore to accept the handle, and stiff enough not to bend under the pressure of grinding and polishing. The handle is a piece of 1/2" aluminum rod with a 3/16" hole drilled through it lengthwise. The head is epoxied to the handle and a short length of 3/16" automobile brake line is epoxied into the opposite end to accept the aquarium hose to the vacuum pump.
The toughest part of the project is making the gasket which fits between the head of the dop and the cab. I have tried a number of materials and tapes and some of them work fairly well, but by far the best is thin latex from a surgical glove or a kitchen glove. The easiest way to handle the latex is to cut a piece, fasten it to a section of 1-1/2" double faced tape, mark the shape of the gasket using your cab template, then cut it out and fasten it to the head of the dop. These last a long time, but it is still a good idea to make several while you are at it.
Finally, you must have a vacuum source. If you have a vacuum pump or a vacuum casting machine, you are home free. If you don't, the little hand held vacuum pumps which are used to check the vacuum systems in cars work great, make no noise, and cost only about twenty-five dollars. They are available at all auto parts stores.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to remove and replace your stone on the dop any time you want with no muss or fuss? Give it a try - break the spell.

Also as of this Squidoo Entry, there is yet another article/follow up ! Read more.........

Have been burning, melting, and generally wasting a lot of silver trying to learn how to silversmith, the past few pendants have turned out a-ok though.

Thought might blog about and share a few of the most recent, successful, and favorite pendants.

This first one has a Nipomo and Marcisite gemstone cabochon. Unlike most of the pendants have done, this one is not backed. It is set with a step type bezel tape. This Nipomo has easily become one of my most favorite minerals.





Then this Picture Jasper pendant is backed, and then used a gallery type bezel tape.



This is a neat little Mexican Lace Agate pendant.





Then my first, from scratch ring.. The stone is Obsidian.

Another Mexican Lace Agate. This particular stone was cut pretty much from just below the crust of the rough. The result was a lot of agate with floating orb effect. Love this stuff !

Then this gemmy green Variscite pendant and bracelet set.

Finally this Rhodonite pendant. I did not take any pics through out the process. The backing was textured by running it through a rolling mill. Something that is on my wish list ! They are very expensive, but a member of my forum shared one that only costs 130.00. It is perfect for what I would be using it for. Now the possibility of having one is a bit more possible !

The bail is a step type bezel tape that I ground off the step part leaving just the pattern part. Then used gallery type wire to set the stone in. This turned out to be one of my favorite pieces so far !



Hope ya like em, and thanks for stopping in !

TaoGem hand cuts, sands and polishes all our customers gemstone orders. Old School Style. No exceptions !

I have access to a variety of gemstone minerals. If you have a request for a specific type of gemstone and dimensions, please feel free to ask. Here are just a few pieces of gemstone rough and gemstone slabs to pick from.

We have a member on my forum who introduced most all of us to what a composite or domed intarsia cab is and how to make them.

Like a regular flat faced intarsia the most important and must have tool to have is a flat lap. Nothing complicated, or fancy. Just something simple that will let the lapidary create really nice even and flat surfaces so when glued together, the joints really are an almost perfect face to face fit.

Ron started sharing his domed intarsia and composite cabs with us quite some time ago.

Just yesterday I was really excited to have finally picked up a older used flat lap set up. After getting a couple of kinks worked out, it is up and running. Next step is to purchase the type of abrasive discs that can be incorporated with a magnetic pad that will adhere to the 10" metal surface of my flat lap.

I ended up using a 10" trim saw blade for a table saw.

It is running nice and smooth. Can't wait to order and receive some abrasive discs. While I am at it, will be ordering a few diamond mesh pads to fine tune the final cab sanding stages prior to polishing. Expecting a big difference with something like a 3000, then 5000, and finally about a 25000 mesh after coming off my 600 grit silicon carbide paper.

Been having fun again with more multi gemstone groups that are excellent for jewelry designing.. Especially if your a silversmith and like interesting and unique pieces..

What makes the group gemstone cabochon sets a little more interesting, is the way they are cut from the original mineral slab. Somewhat similar to making a quality pair of earrings. Except instead of using back to back slabs for matching grains on each earring, these sets are cut from the same area off an area from the slab.. Done patiently, a nice contour of the grains will flow through the entire group of gemstones within the settings group.

Lot of fun to do.. They are among the most rewarding when finished.. Just something about them that I really enjoy.. I am thinking of giving a set a whirl myself.. I am still trying to get a little better at my soldering before I tackle one of my own sets!

Here is one example and there are many more in store. To more easily find just these sets.

Happy to do any kind of special requests for similar sets from a variety of interesting and unusual minerals..

Feel free to contact me with a request or questions.

We have been sharing a lot of different minerals on forum that contain various metallic contents.. This Serpentine with Chromium is a favorite that I did.

As a result, I have been searching for a lot of interesting and unique minerals with unusual metals in them.

Variscite Gemstone Mineral

With all the talk about blue turquoise these days, it seems that some have overlooked the equally beautiful green gemstone variscite as it will gain in popularity. The fact is that many people can not tell the difference between the greener types of turquoise and variscite. They are both phosphates. The general opinion is that they do not occur together, although there are some obvious exceptions. The new "marquise," is an example, and seems to be somewhere between the two in composition, and also has some of the characteristics of each.

The popular variscite is what it is all about in Fairfield nodules. It is deep green in color when in compact masses coupled with the magnificently color associated minerals makes these nodules the finest ever found. Variscite has a hardness of 3.5 to 4.5 yet is dense enough in solid masses to polish well.