First effort at gem cutting and shaping

[elbowgrease]

So after collecting bunch loads of crystals out of Reedy Creek I figured I'd look into doing something with them. They look pretty crappy when you pull em out of the water but I figured some of these stones probably have some potential.

Initially the idea in my head was tumble and polish just to make them look nice and shiny. So after further investigation I tracked down the local gem club so I gave the guy a buzz and went along last night.

The guy that runs the show picked through my box of rocks and picked out the ones we could do something with and said how about we make something out of one of em, so I was like what the heck!

Anyway this is what I ended up with. Wish I had a before and after comparison, the stone started off with a bit of a jellybean shape with a chunk out of it where you can make out the small fracture in the now cut stone, given the natural shape of the original stone he said it would suit cutting into a heart. (not the most manly shape to open your gem cutting account with I know ;D ;D )

The stone isn't the best quality in the world but he said not to use the better ones yet as I'm only still learning and to keep those till I have a bit more confidence and experience. I still need to go over it again as the flat side still has a few scratches in the surface, one I've got the scratches out it'll get a good polish to finish it off nicely.

p.s. i did get a little help shaping the concave cut at the top of the heart but the rest was all done by me ;D

[Ric]

Lovely

The little lady will be pleased and that's a good thing because then you will be allowed to go again ;D

Cheers Ric

[shivan]

Very nice indeed
I would like to get into this a bit myself, but i just started with tumbleing
Just wondering what machines were used to end up with what you have?

[Deleted]

Ditto what the others said. I would also be interested to know what gear you used to do it, dudette has been eyeing of different types of cutters/grinders/polishers for a while but I got no idea how to do it.
Well done.

DD

[elbowgrease]

As mentioned this was done at the local gem club, where in the workshop they have about a dozen grinding wheels set up along a bench along with a rock saw.

With that particular stone we first cut one side off using the rock saw, that part of the stone was quite fractured so would have needed to be removed anyway and this also gave me a nice flat side to put on the grinder.

I started off on the 80 grit, and smoothed and flattened the cut side. Once it was nice and flat the guy that runs the gem club drew the heart shape onto the stone using a greylead pencil. From there I ground out the shape except for the inward curve at the top. After I had the shape fairly symmetrical I then started shaping the domed side. I guess I probably had the cut and shape about 80% right on the 80 and then 100 grits before before I had some help doing the inward shaping curves at the top.

After that I moved to about a 600 grit and continued refining the shape and trying to get the dome and all the sides and curves as symmetrical as possible before hitting the 1000 grit to start smoothing out any scratches and lines. All up it took about 2 hours-ish but I still need to get it back on the 1000 or a 1200 grit as the flat side still has fine scratches in it before giving it a polish.

Once I get it done properly I'll hope to get some photos of the finished product. I'll also endeavor to take them in better light cause those photos were take at 11:30pm at night indoors under lights and look a bit crappy.

Cheers
Adam

[someday]

Neat job Adam
Do you use holders when grinding or watch your fingers get smaller?

[elbowgrease]

All by hand, at first watching the other guy do it I was think WTF how do you not grind your fingers off, but strangely as much as even the finer grits seem to tear into the stone it doesn't really seem to do anything to your fingers, I mean its not like you hold your fingers on there for long anyway but often, especially when working on the edges or if the stone is getting thin, as you hold the stone to the wheel you can let your finger just gently touch and it doesn't really do anything, a couple of the fingertips were a bit red-ish at the end of the night but not noticeably worn or sore at all. I was told to be careful of fingernails tho as these can get pulled back if you aren't watching what your doing.

Adam

[shivan]

Thanks for the info. No local lapidry club here so iam stuck watching vids and reading bits and pieces online. Have a few larger bits of jasper iam going to attack with the angle grinder
Not too profesional but i was given some advise as to how to go about it. Should be fun if not produtive

[hunting the yellow]

very nice are you going to facet any ? they would look good

[danielkrupski]

Hey shivan I wouldn't reccomend using an angle grinder as the heat will cause the stone to crack unless you use water with it. Water and angle grinder don't mix unless you have a small wet grinder or a small wet tile cutter. You can buy one from Bunnings for like $100. As for polishing and cutting stones I made a machine based on a thread from another site. Go to opal auctions forum and search cheapest Easiest opal cutting machine you can build. I built mine using a cheap drill from Bunnings that has variable speed and used wet and dry sandpaper with a hook and loop Velcro backing. Hope this helps

[shivan]

Cheers for the heads up. I do intend to get a tile saw, but just want to try the grinder to see if the info i got was correct or not.
The stone iam going to test on is just a scrap piece so if anything happens to it no loss. If it works will let you know if not will probably just hang my head in shame and get a tile saw

I will check out what you are talking about sounds interesting.