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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 11:07:19 GMT -5
So the deal is I am a newbie and this forum is a incredible resource and I intend to take advantage of all the experience available here!!! That being said.....The questions are 1. Whats the easiest stone to cab? 2. Whats the most liquid wet shine stone to cab? 3. What stone is the best combination of easy and shiny? 4. What is your favorite stone or the stone you speacialize in? By easy I mean the way you define easy..... easy to grind or easy to find the pic, or easy to not grind the pic or pattern off etc. You define why its easy in your post please? Thanks so much, I am not allowed out of the house so a bunch of folks on the forum here sent me rocks, slabs, preforms, etc and I am studying them to learn and plan which ones to do first and how. Its very interesting and I do have a very nice rock shop.....three arbors, 6 inch slabsaw with rock clamp slicing thing, dremel mounted in a vice, bench polish buffers etc. I just cant get out there for fear of infection. Feel free to post pics or links to pics or how tos, I keep prowling old tgreads but its slow going with my tablet so links are good, they take me directly to things. I really like Bikerrandy and others business links to there cabs and wraps!!!! Thanks so much for your contribution, I hope this is a really productive thread for others also!!!!!
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Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on Feb 5, 2013 11:26:14 GMT -5
This is all subject to opinion, but I say the best material to learn to cab on is a nice, hard Brazilian agate. the material is inexpensive, relatively free of flaws, has beautiful colors and patterns and will take the most liquid, wet shine possible on any material out there. A hard agate will be slow cutting, giving the newbie lots of time to really get to know the cutting and polishing process. This is the best type of material to learn on.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 5, 2013 11:27:54 GMT -5
That's a tough question with a lot of variables involved. I have found all the agates like Brazilian, Montana, Crazy lace etc ... are the easiest to achieve the liquid shine but at the same time can be the most difficult to get a scratch free finish too. I know a lot of newbies think the softer stones are better to start with but in fact the softer stones are more difficult to get the shine going and are far less forgiving to the amateur. Our club always teaches cabbing on agates so the students cant really mess them up as easy by using a heavy hand.
I am anxious to read others opinions also Chuck
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 12:03:40 GMT -5
Don ur site has awesome work showcased. I have a brazillion agate slice but its blue? Is that dye or natural? I will put that on the list for now as my first cab with hard rocks, anybody want to challenge this or go for number two speak up!!!! I do understand that its the same as when I learned turquoise, I need to do several of a type to truely get a feel for what that particular stone is like.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 5, 2013 12:07:34 GMT -5
If its a bright blue it is dyed but there are natural light blues. here's a dyed blue one. and here's some other colors too Chuck
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blackout5783
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2011
Posts: 248
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Post by blackout5783 on Feb 5, 2013 12:14:35 GMT -5
Don ur site has awesome work showcased. I have a brazillion agate slice but its blue? Is that dye or natural? I will put that on the list for now as my first cab with hard rocks, anybody want to challenge this or go for number two speak up!!!! I do understand that its the same as when I learned turquoise, I need to do several of a type to truely get a feel for what that particular stone is like. Brazilians are the ones that are usually dyed (I think). Is it a screaming electric blue? If so, its dyed. If it is a pale grey-blue or something similar, it is probably natural, but then I don't think its a Brazilian. They're mostly in the yellow-red-brown range as far as I know. As for easiest cabbing, I think it may depend on your natural technique. My wife and I are certainly no experts, but I would think that if you tend towards a heavy hand agates are easier because they give more room for error. If you naturally have a light touch, you could be there a year and a day with really hard stuff! The thing that has been the biggest help for me so far is the sharpie trick. Between grits, dry the cab and paint the whole top surface with sharpie. Everything. Then go to the next stage. When there's no more sharpie showing, there are no more scratches! And for dark stones where black sharpie is hard to see, I use the silver ones.
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 12:16:51 GMT -5
Hello Chuck, you already know I like puddingstone. I think ur site is very awesome especially the puddingstone tumbles. At this point I think they are more attractive as tumbles than cabs. Puddingstone just seems to be more three dimensional and have a deeper more complex depth as a tumble. I still find it hard to believe mother nature made it, I thought for a long time it was manmade! I do have two tumblers, a 4 pound one and a smaller 1.5 pound sears one. I tried them and never got past course ground but have learned from this site I took them out too early. Gonna start them over when I am allowed out. They r fire agates with very little fire but so pretty when polished. I trued to grind one and it ate my 100 grut sc wheel up! LOL You shoulda seen the petoskey slone preform that Shermlock sent me to learn before I ruined expensive turquise!! Grind, grind gone!!! Heavy handed....
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 12:21:52 GMT -5
Mine looks like ur middle top one Chuck and is a inch thick, can I slice it with my saw and it will be natural color under the blue or is it a display only piece? I could get a lot of slices out of it.
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 12:23:46 GMT -5
Hey Blackout the sharpie trick sounds like a winner!!!! Thanks pardner, Bill Come on folks this is your chance to showcase your opinion!
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keystonecops
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2010
Posts: 957
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Post by keystonecops on Feb 5, 2013 12:38:34 GMT -5
Myself I like the Montana agate. Hard as billy get out, ya have to be patient to get a scratch free shine. Next would be Brazilians. Most any agate will shine, just differnt degrees of patience. The old boy what taught me cabbn said 220 grit is the one ya need to spend a little more time on. I have'nt got one yet, but magnifiers that ya wear would be a help. Enjoy and get us some pics. Later Clyde
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 12:48:00 GMT -5
Hey Clyde just lookin at pics so far I think montanas are the prettiest and very intriguing to look inside them! They also seem to have very fee really cool spots in a slab! I tried quartz grinding before my surgery n they really show scratches and the montanas scare me off for right now for that reason. They are probably a number 4 or 5 on the list to try.
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 12:50:11 GMT -5
Oh yes Clyde I have a mahnifier with flippable lenses I got from Harbor Freight!
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 5, 2013 12:51:21 GMT -5
The sharpie trick is a good one and I have seen people fully coat the cab surface but I just put a serious of lines across the face like drawing pizza slices. Be careful on soft stones though since the sharpie can possibly soak in. I agree with Clyde on the 220 wheel playing a key role on the hard stones. The softer stones in the 5 moh scale you are still removing stock even at the 600 wheel.
Chuck
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 13:05:12 GMT -5
I have a hard sc 100 wheel n then a 220 hard sc wheel then a 320 sc belt then 400 sc belt then a 600 sc belt then a really worn 600 belt. Are you talking about my hard sc wheel spending time? On turquoise I dont touch the top with the hard wheels just the sides. Or are U, Chuck n Clde saying I need a belt to spend extra time on? These rocks must be really hard!!!!!
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cccbock
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2011
Posts: 499
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Post by cccbock on Feb 5, 2013 13:19:42 GMT -5
Hello, here is my opinion. lol...Agates are gauranteed satisfaction as far as shine goes. They are hard to be sure but not difficult to work. The scratch issue for me was resolved when I learned that with agates you absolutely have to not be afraid to push quite hard on the 22o hadrd wheel. At first I was "letting" the wheel do the work. Well in frustration I push harder and the scratches vanished.When you go back a wheel or two you are going to destroy the shine you already have AND change the overall shape of the cab. Maybe just a bit but it will change. Being afraid of this will only allow the scratches to win. Now a softer stone say maybe an obsidian or howlite or calcite will melt away fasterb than you can blink. Ao dont blink! Seriously a soft stone must be ground and polished with very deliberate actions. You can stumble through an agate and still "accidently" come out with a nice cab. Not so with soft stones. If you come away with a nice soft stone it is only because of careful work. My current favorite stone is sodalite that is very dark blue. The less white areas the better. It is a medium soft stone but it gives great shine andhas beautiful patterns. Agates? I like Blue Lace and Lake Superior. Another stone I really like is Dendritic Opal. Not real opal but has an opally apearance. Thats my 2 cents...............
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 5, 2013 13:24:46 GMT -5
With your setup on agates you will hog away and rough shape on the 100SC (beware of chipping as the hard rocks are more brittle) then spend a good amount of time fine tuning the shape and dome on the 220SC after that its scratch removal and flat spot/facet removal on the soft belts. Thats my opinion for what its worth....
Do you have a dressing stick for your carbide wheels yet?
Chuck
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 13:40:47 GMT -5
Ok cccbock thats a different approach. My fav color is dark blue, car n truck you know midnite blue mettalic. Donnie sent me some nice sodalite. Probable will be cab number 4 due to color. Recently saw a dendritic yellow opal n it was mezmerizing. So my take so far is agate, grind aggressively with plenty water on 220 wheel, use sharpie to detect when ground suuficently. Order seems to be 1. Brazillian gate 2. Jasper? 3.Montana agate 4.Sodalite 5.Crazy Lace Where is puddingstone? Not a solid order yet folks, there are many more opinions out there! On forums there are always very talented shy lurkers, yall come on out n play, its a free for all u know!
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Post by orrum on Feb 5, 2013 13:47:37 GMT -5
Yes Chuck I have a diamond dresser t handle thing from Sante Fe jewelry supply. Grinding my rose quartz scepter wand cab I had to dress it several times. I tried to use the wheel all across but the middle still got ate out. My rule is no more quartz till I get diamond wheels but thats ok cause the owner of the Hogg mine gave me a big stack of hard sc wheels, some r green. I think those are better n r supposed to cut faster.
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Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Feb 5, 2013 13:47:59 GMT -5
the only thing better than a magnifying glass for finding scratches is a good CAMERA. I have taken many cabs back to the wheels after photographing them and seeing scratches that I am sure were not there before taking the picture ....lol
Chuck
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Post by Tony W on Feb 5, 2013 14:17:03 GMT -5
Chuck, is that ever the truth, lol. I get really great cabs with a super shine until the camera sees them Then it's hang the head, and mope back to the wheels again. My vote is for Crazy Lace. Nothing beats a great Crazy Lace for me....well, except opal...shiny things..and fire agate.... and sagenite...well, they don't beat it, but it's a tie...well, except for opal. Or morrisonite is good, oh, oh, and a great plume..well, a great Montana is good too, and Bruneau, and Bots, ohhhh, bots..... lol. T
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