Recent Posts

Just as a safety reminder - U.V. light rays can be very damaging to the eyes. I once met and old retired lapidary dealer who liked to use his U.V. light on rocks and gems and had seriously damaged his center-field of vision. When looking straight ahead he could only see what was to his left-of-center and right-of-center fields of vision. Not what was straight in front of him.

There are clear U.V. protective safety glasses that will help prevent eye damage when using U.V. lights. Harbor freight sales a pair for $4.99.
www.harborfreight.com/safety-glasses-clear-98366.html

Larry C.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but I'm pretty sure that Amlap is gone now too. They were a home based business and I saw a post a few months back where someone was trying to get in touch with them with no success and checked the address and the home at their business address listing had been sold. After reading this I tried calling Amlap's phone number and the number is now to a health/nutrition type club. Amlap had been my go-to dealer for the best deals on the net. Hated to see them go.

Larry C.

Rockjunquie is correct, definitely Flowering Tube Onyx. I've slabbed a lot of this material. The people who used to own the claim and mined it mass treated much of the rough with resin before they sold it. But it often needs additional stabilizing after slabbing.

Larry C.

I once drove 12 hours (each way) from NC to AR for a huge estate auction that had advertised literally many tons of old stock cabbing rough. I drove ten hours the first day and stopped in Memphis overnight. I couldn't sleep that night, probably from too much caffeine during the trip. The next morning I drove two more hours the rest of the way to the sale location in Arkansas. And this was the day before the auction was scheduled but was supposed to be the sale preview day.

When I got to the preview the oldest daughter who was the executrix of the estate informed me that she had decided to cancel the rock portion of the sale out of fear she wouldn't have enough rock people show up to bring what she thought the collection was worth. I tried to get her to put a price on the collection as a whole but she just told me that I couldn't afford it.

I was able to talk her into letting me pick out some rough out of the outdoor rock piles to buy for my troubles (time, gas, motel, etc.). After spending an hour or two selecting what was probably a couple of hundred pounds of fairly decent(but not great) pieces of variuos agates, jaspers, obsidian, etc.. I asked her for a price. Before she would give me a price she sat down on the ground in front of the pile I had picked and did a complete 360 degree inspection of each rock, licking portions of some, and literally caressing them like they were pets. After a thorough inspection she pronounced she wanted $4 per pound. By this time even here sister was getting annoyed and embarrassed and helped me get her down to about half that price. After a little more work I was able to get her to let me in the indoor part of the rock shop and got her to sell me a small amount of some of the slightly better materials for higher prices. So after having drove 12 hours with only having had less than a half hours sleep, I loaded up and drove the 12 hours back home so not to have the cost of another motel room.

They did eventually have the auction sale of the rock portion of the estate but I didn't drive back for it. I heard they auctioned sections of the rough off by the pound and then let the winner hand pick what they wanted while the crowd waited, then weighed it for the total, again while the crowd waited, and then reopened the bid for the remaining rough in that section. And repeated the process until the rough was gone and then moved over to the next section of rough. I was told the crowd got pretty annoyed and that most of the rough only brought 25-50 cents per pound.

Larry C.

I don't sell on Etsy but when I used to ship internationally on eBay I had a few buyers ask me to lie on the customs forms too. Never would do it. In addition to the repugnance of the dishonesty, I'm pretty sure it's a Federal offense to lie on a customs form.

So we've stopped shipping internationally because we got tired of the hassles. Too much time wasted getting international shipping costs and then the potential buyer who asked for a shipping quote didn't want to pay the shipping and wouldn't buy. And I even had a couple who didn't ask shipping costs and won the bids but then backed out of the sale after learning what the international shipping costs were.

Larry C.

Kaleidoscope Jasper varies in hardness but most of what I have cut was softer than most jaspers are.

And after seeing the rest of the slab that the agate cab came from I'm a little less prone to think it might be Piranha Agate. I don't recall having seen that much deep green color in Piranah Agate before. But maybe someone else here can way-in on if it does occur?

Larry C.

Yes it does run up the price return needed of the better material. That's why I won't even buy the bulk lots of rough at wholesale shows, too much mediocre material included. I would rather pay the higher cherry-picker price in order to get to hand select material. And even then, with today's prices it can be a challenge to come out well.

Larry C.

I used to use a plated steel MAJA brand lap (not made anymore). It worked okay but if you looked at the finished stone under magnification there were always scratches left behind. Which is a complaint I have heard about other 3K plated laps. IMO rechargeable is the way to go.

I'm thinking about trying one of Gearloose's Zinc laps for pre-polish. From what I've read 8K on zinc works as well as 3K on tin or copper.

Larry C.

Prismatic faceting machines were very well made. The craftsmanship was top notch and they were state-of-the-art in their day. There were several models of Prismatic machines with several variations. The owner of Prismatic was constantly making improvements in design. The son of the man who made the Prismatic machines is Zane Hoffman. Zane currently makes the Poly-Metric line of faceting machines. The last I heard Zane will services his dad's line of machines. I've talked to Zane a few times on the phone and he is a great guy who always seems willing to answer questions. I would suggest finding out which model of Prismatic machine you're looking at, get a photo if you can, and get in touch with Zane Hoffman at Poly-Metric. He can probably answer all of your questions.

Larry C.

P.S. Here is a link to Zane's site that features some of his dad's Prismatic machines. This might help you I.D. the one you're looking at:
www.polymetricinc.com/prismatic_information.htm