r/Lapidary

I got this lot of Fordite from an auction. I haven’t done anything with Fordite before, but this seems a little soft (at least when you’re used to rocks & glass). I’m a little unsure of how to proceed. Size of these are anywhere from 1/2”to 3” at widest. Any suggestions?

Sometimes, you get a nice surprise off the saw. I only cut what I find myself. This one blew my hair back. The stone is catoctin greenstone (a metabasalt) from the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia. As best I can tell, the vein contains epidote, quartz, actinolite, and jasper. I’m torn about how to cut and polish from here. I slabbed thickly on instinct. (Look at that little forest!) I welcome ideas and advice.

I cut a few incredible smalls yesterday. First 3 are Priday thunder eggs, the 4th is a botryoidal piece from The Valley View mine in the Ochocos, and the last vid is a tiny but amazing Powell Butte plume piece.

A friend of ours is a Pisces, according to the zodiac. She asked if I could carve a fire agate to match. Well, I gave it a try, at least.

Picture for reference.

Hello! I'm still trying to find where I can get lab grown gemstone/crystal for faceting. This guys video popped up on my youtube feed, and I'm astonished at the size of this lab grown crystal!

Where can I buy huge crystals like that for faceting? No site I've seen so far has anything even close.

Unknown agate I got from a lot. Could be a Montana agate

This is my favorite stone, it always has beauty in it.

This piece was found in an old central Oregon collection, and numerous locals have said it is most likely from Hampton Butte. Where ever it’s from, it sure is incredible! Photo of the whole piece at the end.

Não consigo identificar este reflexo linear que existe neste argilomineral lapidado em seminavete! Pensei em efeito Sheen! Mas é tão linear que gostaria de opiniões e comentários! No vídeo gravado por mim na câmera do celular, eu saio da sombra e esponho o navete à luz solar! Mas isso acontece também em luz artificial!

I apologize I tried posting a video of the stone but it wouldn’t load. I hope the picture is clear enough. Thanks for any help.

This is most likely tabu tabu but it could be a stone canyon (are they red?). It measures 45 x 25 x 6 mm with a tapered side and nice dome. Polished from 80 - 220 - 240 - 600 - 1200 - cerium. The vug you see isn't a vug, just REALLY clear chalcedony, I didn't expect much from it as you can see from the before picture but it really surprised me.

Got a few finished up today! Still can't get over the blue/green obsidian on the bottom row.

At the moment it is mostly going through a proof of theory phase; will it hold any tolerance, can it achieve any level of precision. Then there will be testing on its ruggedness and ability to maintain its baseline. But I thought this would be a fun opportunity to give people a sneak peak into why I have had lapidary work itself on the back burner while pursuing and engineering degree! Planning to really answer some of the industry aches, like viability of AFFORDABLE entry level equipment that is not just a moneypit or poorly crafted chinesium. Part of that degree is understanding material science, so please please please do not approach this post in a way that suggests you believe I have not considered the pros and cons of the method of manufacturing that I am using. I typically keep to the r/Opals community as my personal specialty is opals and other difficult to properly cut materials like fire obsidian, fire agate, and so forth. But I wanted to share this with the broader lapidary community as well!

Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day everyone!

I'm pretty new to cabbing and I work on a flat lap. When I try to set the edge of my cabs, they always get this wavy shape, as seen in the video. What is the right technique to achieve even edges on a flat lap? 😬

Thank you in advance!