The Lap of Lapidary is Open

 The weather on Digby Neck has turned warm enough to turn on the outside water and that has allowed for the renewal of activities in my rock shop. The first order of business was to cut some of the finds made by "She With The Agate Eye". All these rocks were cut on my 10 inch Hi-Tech saw using their red sintered blade.

I want to say a word about the saw. I am loving it more with each cut! And having now used it for four years I can make some conclusions.

1. This saw is durable. I read comments on lapidary sights about the "cheap, flimsy build". I can assure you it is neither cheap or flimsy. Rather, it is tough and durable, easy to clean (more on that later), doesn't rust and the motor is great. For years I kept my 10 inch oil cooled saw with a new 1 H.P. motor for larger rocks but no longer. I'm selling my old friend, the Mercury 10 inch with it's nice motorized feed.

2. The red sintered blade is as good if not better than my previous go to MK-303, especially if you add a little water soluble lubricant. And I only cut material with hardness 6.5 or higher.

3. I love using water instead of oil. I cut by hand feed mostly and the water is cleaner, safer and the rocks are clean coming off the saw. As a bonus, my wife is an artist and she will actually clean my saw for me to get the sludge, with which she makes paint!(see earlier posts). She would never cut rocks on the oil saw but she enjoys cutting on the Hi-Tech.

4. Capacity. Any rock I could cut on the 10 inch oil saw I can cut on the Hi-Tech.

Now on to some examples. Here on Digby Neck, the agate, carnelian, amethyst, quartz and jasper are usually found as veins in the basalt. Here's a great example.

The vein contains agate, fortification agate and amethyst and since this particular vein actually looks like The Neck, I'll make pendants with a lot of the basalt intact. We have some spectacular plume agate and here's a good example.

I just love the pockets of fortification agate and it makes amazing jewelry. Here's another interesting example.

And last but by no means least, here's a specimen of my wife's favourite- sagenite.

Here on The Neck, we get some amazing colours in this rock- green, purple, yellow- along with amazing patterning and when it is solid, it makes awesome polished stones.

All the above stones are local and a small fraction of what can be found. So if you like rocks, stop by The Lap of Lapidary!

Latest From The Lap of Lapidary

 While we have had more visitors recently, I've still had time to get out to the shop and do some cutting. Here are some recent efforts.

The first is a beautiful piece of our local moss (some call it plume) agate.

This one had some nice colour and patterning and the inside sure didn't disappoint!

It shows the typical gorgeous golden plumes and some beautiful blue/grey pockets of fortification agate.

The next one was a real surprise. Quite frankly, this one had me stumped on the surface.

It had some nice yellow colour that always suggests sagenite but not much in the way of patterning. But inside...

This one has everything including the kitchen sink. There is definitely sagenite but also fortification agate and deep chocolate areas of what I suspect to be haematite. If I can get this to polish, I'll get some amazing cabochons! And to that end, I've already cut some additional slices.

By the way, these rocks are both local from Digby Neck. Stay tuned!

Lapidary Is Like A Box Of Chocolates!

 Since we have had steady rain here for the last few days, I decided to tackle the mound of interesting rock that She With The Agate Eye had found and wanted cut. (Hey, what can I say- she buys me new blades!). Several of the pieces were sagenite and plume agate, not my favourite but she loves 'em. Most were stuff I'd seen before but then I got to these two very pleasant surprises. Normally, the plume agate doesn't polish very well because the plume areas are a little soft but this one...well, see for yourself!

Not only is the patterning outstanding, it polished to an absolute glass finish. And the best part is that just below the glass surface in the clear areas, are crystal druzy pockets that cause the stone to sparkle as it moves. It is about 4 cm. in height. This is absolutely one of the most beautiful cabs I've ever made and I have three more pieces to work with. It demands a very special setting.

This next piece was from a rounded end cut and all I had to do was smooth it out a bit and define a shape.

Again, the patterning and colour are fantastic and it has polished to a glass finish when I went to 50K diamond paste. Vickie, who among about a thousand other talents is a very accomplished abstract artist, has "borrowed" this piece for inspiration.

This is why I love cutting rock because as Forrest Gump says, " You never know WHAT you're gonna get!"