So lads I found this nice little store that sells a load of different rough and tumbled stones. I chose this small piece of Amazonite the shape of a wedge and I want to learn more about it. I have lots of information online but they all pertain to hobbyists with the wide array of specialized tools and full of jargon. I can't seem to find anything that a mindless oaf can work with and start from scratch.
I got this piece I want to grind and shape down to a spike or so and a rotary tools with a vast amount of bits. Cutoff discs and steel saw discs, grinding wheels, felt buffers, soft and rough brushes, steel and diamond burrs of various shapes, sizes and grits and good ol' sandpaper. Any resources or advice about how I can start from this? It's not too big of a deal if I fuck up, these things are cheap, but I'd like to avoid basic no-brainer mistakes if possible but nor do I want to invest in specialised equipment for a few temporary "Why not?" experiments.
What can I do with what I got?
>>958013
Depends.. Got any hand tools? Handheld circular saw? I know exactly what to do to get it cut with a circular saw.. Its a bit dodgy but it works. And the grey colored bits work for grinding on rocks from your rotary tool kit. Not the orange ones. They more so polish then they do grind tho.
>>958017
I don't have any hand tools at all aside from a hand-rotated hobby drill like they use for Warhammer miniatures and very fine and small nail files.
What grey/orange coloured bits?
Bumparoo before I go to bed.
I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, but this is what I once did (It was a labor intensive):
-Get soapstone
-Cut it into an approximate shape of what you want
-Using some files, carve away at it until you have close to what you want
-Take out all of the major scratches with some rough (100 grit) sandpaper
-Once all of the major scratches are gone, move up to a higher grit sandpaper
-Continue process several times
Polishing:
-Get very fine sandpaper (3000+) and a bucket of water
-Wet the craft and sandpaper
-Sand the craft in a circular fashion, wetting it periodically
-Keep doing this for a while; the soapstone will probably become translucent
-When done, rub with a piece of cloth
Result: Polished soapstone craft
>>958424
Interesting, so you did it all with files and sandpaper? Huh. Well Soapstone has a Mohs index of like 2.5-3. Amazonite is 6-6.5.
Now that I think about it, maybe I should've gotten some Calcite for starters. 70 cents for a fist-sized bright yellow mineral, at 3 Mohs. Ah well, live and learn. But that is pretty much what I'm looking for. Should I apply the same principles to any other gemstone?
I was mostly worried about if there's some tricks you have to learn like how you have to take into account the grain of the wood when you're working with it otherwise you tear the shit out of it. Is that a thing with precious stones?
Bumping with an update. I got a really nice shape ground down, like an animal fang. First I ground down the shape with a grinding disc (ate away most of it), then used a fine diamond burr to smoothen the edges.
I took 100, 220 and 400 grit sandpaper and spent about an hour and a half continuously polishing it, making sure both stone and paper were wet. On the 400 grit, my sandpaper fell apart quite literally within the first few seconds of polishing. The compound just melted off the paper, so I'm gonna try getting sturdier fine grits. But now the stone still has a very chalky and tarnished look despite all that polishing. What do?
>>959622
Post pics? Ive always wanted to try this
>>959631
Sure thing. This is what I have right now. The starting rough was long and a lot boxier, with a good bit of random brownish earth and rock still attached, quite a dirty rough. As you can see it's got a very chalky surface and most of it isn't reflective at all. I'm at a loss, any advice?
>>958013
So are you going to share the site or not? I like having valuable things but not having to pay their actual value for them. *rubs hands*
