Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2013 21:29:51 GMT -5
I got this as a little cube in the Traveling Rock box #5. Justin (Juzwuz) included it just ahead of me as a special gift. Thanks Justin! It took me until now to get it done. This is the first sphere done on my home machine. Not entirely, but the first grind for sure! This material was unknown when I got the cube. I posted images and Krystee (TNTMom) had a friend who browses but does not post here and he identified it as Listwanite. I have since owned and cut some California Mariposite and the materials are seemingly the same. Because the material is from Washington state and the Washington stoners call it Listwanite, so will I. Finished sphere is approximately 2.25" in diameter. Takes a gorgeous polish. First image for Beefjello in honor of his 6,000 post decal event!     This material is a low grade gold ore. The shiny spot top of center is either metallic gold or pyrite. Thanks for the gold ore Justin!   Not bad for unedited images from a crappy old Nikon Coolpix 3200! Jamesp's heat treated coral and a Priday moss egg coming soon |
|
|
|
Post by jakesrocks on Jul 3, 2013 22:48:52 GMT -5
WOW !! Very nice. I have a large block of Listwanite, traded to me for a hunk of California nephrite. I'll have to cube part of it for a sphere.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2013 23:56:59 GMT -5
WOW !! Very nice. I have a large block of Listwanite, traded to me for a hunk of California nephrite. I'll have to cube part of it for a sphere. Do it Don! It is pretty soft so works easy and fast! Nothing better than a pretty sphere that was fast and easy to produce! Final polish was a dream. I used the AlOx from The Rock Shed on "polishing cloth" over denim on PVC cups. 15 minutes for the 2.5" sphere and I was shining! I used SnOx first on the Mariposite sphere I made. It did not work well. Cut it up! |
|
|
|
Post by jakesrocks on Jul 4, 2013 0:04:57 GMT -5
I got a large chunk of Washington Grossular in the same trade. I'll probably make a sphere from both. On my small machine, I fasten a piece of soft leather over each head, rough side out for polishing. Cerium gives a great shine on leather.
|
|
juzwuz
has rocks in the head
Member since April 2010
Posts: 526
|
Post by juzwuz on Jul 4, 2013 0:07:01 GMT -5
Very cool! I was waiting for you to finish that sphere. I like that spot of gold/pyrite. Did you have any trouble with fractures? I have a couple of listwanite cubes left and I'll have to start working on them sometime.
Justin
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2013 0:21:06 GMT -5
Very cool! I was waiting for you to finish that sphere. I like that spot of gold/pyrite. Did you have any trouble with fractures? I have a couple of listwanite cubes left and I'll have to start working on them sometime. Justin To be 100% honest, I did have one TINY flake pop out during polish. TINY. So small I won't re-grind and re-finish. For non-spheremakers, polish generates a LOT of heat. This stone was almost too hot to handle when I removed it from polish. This can cause a fracture to fail. I got lucky with mine. Only a tiny flake. jakesrocks, let me know how the leather polish goes on this soft material. It will be interesting to know if this method works. I am aware of another sphere-maker having trouble with leather on random materials. Knowledge is good! |
|
|
|
Post by jakesrocks on Jul 4, 2013 0:39:49 GMT -5
Scott, I've used leather on obsidian and a fairly soft marble from the old mine near Cadiz,Ca. off old Rt66. Got a great shine on both just using French cerium. I kept it wet, which helped to hold the heat down.
As for tiny flakes, I have a small Tic Canyon Howelite sphere which was in final sanding when a piece the size of my little finger nail popped out. The sphere shot out of the cups and across the room. One of these days I'll finish polishing it by hand.
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,492
|
Post by Sabre52 on Jul 4, 2013 8:13:06 GMT -5
Wow beautiful! That did take a great polish. I would think that definitely would be listwanite because Mariposite tends to under cut quite a lot and would be much more difficult to polish to that much of a shine.....Mel
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2013 21:10:40 GMT -5
Wow beautiful! That did take a great polish. I would think that definitely would be listwanite because Mariposite tends to under cut quite a lot and would be much more difficult to polish to that much of a shine.....Mel Mel, I have a hunk of landscaping stone "green river rock" Mariposite that I made a sphere from. It polished just as good. Not bad for a few bux! Like $0.25/lb! |
|
|
|
Post by roy on Jul 5, 2013 20:32:54 GMT -5
that is a killer sphere !
|
|
Tommy
Administrator 
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,957
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 8, 2013 0:08:47 GMT -5
Beautiful piece Scott!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2013 15:28:26 GMT -5
Thanks everybody. Don, did you finish yours yet???  |
|
hand2mouthmining
spending too much on rocks
Purveyors of California Gem Rock
Member since September 2011
Posts: 495
|
Post by hand2mouthmining on Jul 9, 2013 13:57:44 GMT -5
Sweet sphere, Scott! Gotta love that gold ore!
|
|
|
|
Post by tntmom on Jul 9, 2013 14:19:19 GMT -5
AWESOME sphere Scott!!! I love working Listwanite and it does shine up amazingly well!
|
|
