Been dragging lately. Temp has hopped around a great deal and is messing with me.

My daughter picked the group in the lower righthand corner for the fifth run.

100 grit grind --




All of these are quartzes. The little one has a few large clear areas.

All three larger stones developed cavities. But I think I can work around all of them except on the red one.

I found that disappointing as I liked the iron stained one with its deep red "veins". The yellow brown one's cavities along the bezel might cause some problems. I don't know.

Not sure why blogger is making these two pics as downloads when you click on them. I set up the links like the other pics. Strange.

========================================================

220 grit grind --

Need to finish this batch before the Christmas stones come in.



========================================================

In an effort to save time I went through the sanding and polishing without taking pictures.

I'll put the end pics up later tonight or in the morning.

Something new I tried - rounding the bezel. Going through terapeak I noticed that all the ruby and jade had rounded bezels and I thought I should learn how to do that.

Thought I'd try the rounding on the 360grit step. No no no. It will need to be done on the 220grit sanding step.

========================================================

Polished -

Running late and couldn't get a good pic of the large white quartz. The brown quartz had several cracks that reached the surface.

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My daughter picked the center group for the fourth run.

100 grit grind --

These stones were a royal pain for one reason or another. Hopefully going forward they will be better behaved.

I knew the black stone was of the same soft material as before but the red one surprised me in that it felt hard enough to grind. However, the red stone developed a deep fissure that couldn't be ground away.

Those black stones are interesting in that the first two had small squares that sparkled, the third had some clear quartz in the bezel and dome, and this one has very small flecks of sparkly stuff in it.



========================================================

220 grit grind --



========================================================

220 grit sanding --



========================================================
360 grit sanding --

Hmm, now that I'm putting pics up I'm noticing that the step by step pictures don't show that much difference. Especially between the sanding steps.

Tempted to leave it out, but, I think my photo skills are ramping up and the more I do the better off I'll be when I get to selling. Not sure.

Having said that, I think this and the last are my favorite pics. Not so much the subject... just how it looks.



========================================================
600 grit sanding --



========================================================

Tripoli polish --

Third group

My daughter picked the top middle group for the third run.

100 grit grind --

Large quartzy stone was a pain in the rear. Several cavities in the dome. As it is, there are a number of cracks that reach the surface. Not sure how it will come out.

Pics where taken in my photo box from about six feet away and zoomed in. That seems the only way to get all the stones to have decent focus.



========================================================

220 grit grind --



========================================================

220 grit sanding --

Had to get a little creative to get a decent pic. Went with a shot of three and one of two.



========================================================

360 grit sanding --

Moving slow... feeling under the weather.



========================================================

600 grit sanding --

I like the color better on the pics without flash. But I can't seem to get a good sharp focus.

Another annoying thing. The pic editing software introduces artifacts. Like the round below has green splotches. I plan on getting another lamp with a 3000K light bulb. So that might be cleared up at that time.

The stone to the left of the large quartz has those flecks that the tripoli eats into. So I'll have an example of that. Speaking of that stone, it is interesting in that it is a mix of white and clear quartz with greenish black flecks. The round is also interesting in that it has green and blue material inside and a field (the brownish specks in the pic) that sparkles in the light.



========================================================

Tripoli polishing --

You'll see in the closeup of the quartz with greenish, black flecks how the flecks have been chewed up. If I had persisted, it would only have gotten worse.

I wasn't able to get the sparkle of the round without some blurring. The light and dark areas of the round are reflections of the inside of my photo box.

Thoughts on photography

The picture of the finished stone in the last group is still bothering me.

I googled around for photography tips and found this link talking about inexpensive ways of capturing jewelry.

Seems the use of a flash and direct, glaring lights are the problem.

So, I need to get a deep, frosted white bin. I also like her suggestion of using inexpensive lamps with specialized bulbs.

Not sure how soon I'll get all that stuff. With Thanksgiving tomorrow and Black Friday after, I don't want to go near a store.

Update:

Oh, looky here. Another photo box.

Another update:
I made the box at the second link. Been trying it out with one lamp and a piece of printer paper folded first lengthwise so that it can stand on its own and then widthwise so that it can reflect the light in a couple directions.

Most of what I've read indicates that you shouldn't use a flash. That works for me sometimes. Other times it comes out blurred. That might be corrected with a tripod.

Also noticed that the camera doesn't deal well with multiple stones in the pic.

So, here is my favorite of group two in my photo box --



I think I can reduce flash glare by standing way back while zoomed in.

Second group

Came across a pic editor by the name of picasa. Pretty useful for someone that doesn't know much about photography, like me.

My daughter picked the bottom middle group for the second run.

100 grit grind --



The stone on the lower right is another one of those soft stones that I'll give to my girl as is. The stone on the lower left had a cavities show up on the dome and the bezel. I was able to grind through the dome cavity without much loss, but the bezel cavities forced me to make it a small freehand. Both of the top stones had original portions of the dome much lower than other sides. I didn't think this much of a problem when marking them up as the low sides were above the bezel. However, it created a great deal of work to make the dome even. Because the stones were small it was still workable. But in the cases of other stones (i.e. group in the upper left hand corner) there is too much material to remove. I will have to resize those stones.

Next up, the 220 grit grind...

=====================================

220 grit grind --

Had issues with the very white stone. The depth of its color made it difficult to find the bezel line as well as any major ridges. I've read of people inking their stones before grinding. But there was never a reason given. Well, after dealing with that white stone I understand.

The large stone gave me a couple issues. One is that the bottom is curved and won't lie flat on the table. Making a flat bottom is hard on a wheel and much harder when the stone is large (40mm length). The other issue was that there was a cavity at the peak of the dome. It ground away nicely but the stone is so large that making the dome symmetrical after the fact is real hard.



Next up, the 220 grit sanding...

=====================================

220 grit sanding --

Well, after experimenting around I've come to the conclusion that my wife's Olympus SP-350 is pretty nifty. I should hunt down the manual.

You'll see in the wet pic below how the extender fluid interferes with how the water flows over the stone. I think I'll start doing just the dry pics of the sanding steps.



Next up, the 360 grit sanding...

=====================================

360 grit sanding --

For some reason I had issues getting a good pic of 360 grit sanding. I ended up having to bring in an additional light. What makes that strange to me is that extra light was causing me problems in other photos.

Ehh.



Next up, the 600 grit sanding...

=====================================

600 grit sanding --

Big stone developed a small cavity during the 220 grit sanding. I've got it down to a speck and am too worried about opening a bigger cavity if I push it. Not sure if the tripoli will be able to smooth the last bit of the speck. Yet another reason to switch to all diamond sanding and polishing.



Lastly, tripoli polishing...

=====================================

Tripoli polishing --

Wish I knew how to capture the finish properly in a pic. I set up a light so that the reflection can been seen, but only the large stone picked it up.

Hmmm.

Looking at the blowup of this pic the large stone appears to have fissures all over it's surface but that is not the case. It has a mirror polish with the only blemish being the small cavity SW of the camera's flash. The stone is what I call aggregated quartz (lots of small quartz crystals melded together). I have no idea what its proper name is. I think the camera is picking up where the small crystals meet within the stone. That and there are odd sparks all over in that pic. Looking at the stone now, I do notice that the light catches the crystals if turned just so. I'm guessing the camera is picking up on that as well.

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First group

My daughter picked the group in the lower left hand corner for the first run.

I was right about the blackish stones, they are too soft. They are of the same material of one of the first stones I ground. They have some material that sparkles and flashes like pyrite. The thing is that material comes in square flakes that pull out on polishing. So what I was left with was a stone with a dull polish and all of its interesting sparkle gone. As you can see below, these stones still have their sparkle. On the smaller one the flakes are on edge and form a spiral to the center. The flakes are flat on the larger one and it gives flashes that I couldn't capture with the camera. The wet pic shows what they might look like if I had all the grits to polish soft stones.

I will do nothing further with the two soft stones as my daughter likes them as is. I asked her about the other four stones that I think are the same material and she'd like them ground to rough form. As she has me wrapped around her little finger, she'll get them as she wishes.

Main tasks on the 100 grit grinding step are -

• Grind near bezel to the top marks
• Grind from top marks to center dot
• Then with the use of the template, work the sides in so that it can tightly pass through the template

I was a bit lazy on the reddish stone in the middle. As I was sizing to template I found I was more than a bit off. This means I'll have more work to do on the 220 grit step to clean up the bezel.

The large quartz stone on the right has some major flaws that might cause problems with polishing. There are two major cleavage-like cracks that run across the width and length of the stone. There are also a number of flaws that reach the surface of the stone. This means that cavities can open up at each point where the surface is breached. In the wet picture you can tell that the flaws run deep and that there is no real chance to grind through them. Still, it is an interesting rock and I want to see how it turns out.

Next up, the 220 grit grind...

=====================================

220 grit grind --

Main tasks on the 220 grit grinding step are -

• Grind to bezel
• Get rid of any ridges/bumps near the bezel and any major ridges/bumps elsewhere on the stone
• Ensure that that the stone has been made as symmetrical as possible as it would be very hard to correct this in the sanding steps ahead
  
• Put a shallow 45 degree cut into the bottom edge to prevent chipping (just enough to remove the sharp edge)
• If the stone is very translucent or transparent, go over the bottom as well
  

My wife suggested that I go to a black background on the pics. I have to agree, the color does come out better.



Next I'll dop the stones and sand with 220 grit diamond....

=====================================

220 grit sanding --

The only task on the 220 grit sanding step is -

• Remove all ridges, bumps, and flat areas

The only ridges, bumps, or flat areas that you should leave for the 360 grit sanding step are those that the 220 grit will make worse.



Next I'll sand with 360 grit diamond....

=====================================

360 grit sanding --

Main tasks on the 360 grit sanding step are -

• Remove all ridges, bumps, and flat areas left from the 220 grit sanding
• Sand the whole stone to prepare for polishing
  

I was moving too quick to notice I got too close with the camera and blurred the pictures.

Irritating.

Next I'll sand with 600 grit diamond....

=====================================

600 grit sanding --

Main tasks on the 600 grit sanding step are -

• Remove all ridges, bumps, and flat areas left from the 360 grit sanding
• Sand the whole stone to prepare for polishing
  

Only the dry pic below as the extender fluid stops the water from shining the stone up.



On to the tripoli step....

=====================================

Polishing with tripoli --

Work towards the center as the pad dries. Continue to work as it starts to drag a bit. Be careful of letting it run too fast and hot or you'll get a weird flow effect.



Hmm, putting all this up tells me I need to work on my camera work considering I want to sell on ebay at some point.

Ground near template, marked, and grouped

Had two stones that I had to grind smaller as one had a hidden cavity and another broke along a cleavage line and around five more that due to its shape I had to make a short bezel line. I'll have to work the dome down more on those.

I think the blackish ones with a bit of sparkle as well as the small red stone might be too soft to take a polish with the tripoli and cerium oxide. Not too concerned with these. Nor am I interested in getting the grit to deal with soft stones at this time.

I found the marble looking stones as well as the flat quartz(?) stones to be interesting. First, they were much harder than what I was expecting. The quartz might be explained because of how large they are. They are the largest stones I've worked so far and are about as large as I can work on a 6" x 1" wheel. The marble-like ones are a mystery to me. Before cutting they looked white with pink zones and darker lines running throughout. But on cutting they showed varying shades of red. I'm curious as to what they'll look like polished.

At the time it seemed like a good idea to grind all of the stones to near template in one go and work smaller batches to completion. Now, with my back and chest (crouched at the grinder) complaining, I'm not so sure.

Trimmed to rough form

Dry and wet pictures of trimmed rough --



Next up is the 100 grit wheel. I'll be grinding down near to template and marking out the bezel line as well as the dome.

The last of my found rocks

Thought I'd start adding pics of what I'm doing.

Below you'll find wet and dry pictures of the last of my found rocks (click to see larger view). My daughter has far more but I'm itching to get working on stones that might sell.




All but the four in the top right have come from my back yard. They are from the falls of the Ohio state park.

The stone in the lower right hand corner and the one above it are marked for cutting in half.

Next up, trimmed to rough form.

More throughts on tripoli

Looking at earlier stones I worked I think I can see why the tripoli worked out fine.

My first stones were translucent and had silk/intrusions that didn't reach the surface of the stone. They also tended to be agate or feldspar.

The next large group had several stones with silk/intrusions that reached the surface, aggregated quartz stones (not a proper name, but the stones appear to be composed of small quartz crystal stuck together), and stones that were a mix of quartz and other material (most often thin black squares that I think are mica).

The end of my found rocks are a mix of translucent and opaque (a few look a little like marble).

I think the tripoli has issues with stones with silk/intrusions that reach the surface. In sanding, the diamond tends to reveal silk/intrusions that run deep and, with additional work, lessens them. The tripoli tends to widen the gaps. With additional work the tripoli does lessen them but it would take a great deal of work to remove them.

In the case of stones that have softer material mixed in, the tripoli attacks the softer while barely touching the harder. Additional work with the tripoli makes things worse.

At this point I think the tripoli creates more work with mixed material stones and stones that have silk/intrusions that reach the surface.

I think I'll use a heavier mix of tripoli for polishing to see if that will work better and to use it up faster so that I can move to diamond for my 1200 grit step.

Thoughts on tripoli and canvas disks

So far both the dura-tex and the canvas disks are holding up fine. They both cut well.

I did notice the canvas disks generate more heat. This caused me to pay more attention to how hot I get my stones and dop wax when dopping (a cool stone will form a weak bond and will come off if heated). Paying closer attention allows me to continue without real change. If it grows to be a problem I'd probably switch to a darker/stronger dopping wax.

I've noticed something with the tripoli and my found rocks. It works just fine with the feldspar and quartz but has problems with some of the other stones I picked up. Specifically the agate (?) pebbles with strong colored silk and quartz aggregate. I get no undercutting during grinding or sanding, but after a once-over with the tripoli, all sorts of undercutting. I found this very irritating on my last batch as I had a rock made up of white and clear quartz with black (mica?) silk throughout. It made for nice windows all over. Then the tripoli tore through what looks like mica leaving the quartz alone.

Now, nothing is lost because this is all found stone and I'm working on my hand skills. But, dang if it isn't irritating. That and I need to keep this in mind as I get closer to finishing off my found rock and start moving towards stones that I'll sell.

My experiences with found feldspar tells me the tripoli would be fine. But what of the emerald and corundum lapidary rough that I move towards? I've read that corundum has soft sides that cause pitting and its hardness indicates the need for diamond. But what of emerald?

What I find interesting is that lapidary rough is pretty cheap and if you look around there appears to be good rock out there.

Ehh, I'm getting ahead of myself. I've around 35 more found rocks to practice on and near that number of public mine stones along with the low grade moonstone I bought.

Then I can move to the 500cts of nice moonstone I have. Those are what I'll try selling on ebay.

----

Oh another thing I've determined with the diamond grit: It lasts much longer than I had ever hoped.

I would appear that the diamond grit available in the 80s when Riggle wrote his book was pretty weak. He suggested 1.5-2g for a 6" disk. Well, I filled the disk up with around 1.5g and on use found I had much runoff that I ended up smearing on new stones worked and then on the disk itself after I was done. I had read that I should expect runoff the first few times as the diamond found its way into pockets.

So, no big deal.

But on reuse I thought I had to recharge. Not so! I've not recharged the disks for around 20 stones now. I plan on following something I read on a faceting site: recharge when cutting slows.

So, in the end, diamond is very cheap to use.

I think I'll order a couple more uncharged canvas pads and some 1200 & 14K grit for stones that the tripoli can't deal with.

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EUR/JPY - No change on short 166.91, stop 167.71.

My desktop puked last week and I was forced to rebuild. As a consequence I lost my liteforex demo setup and I didn't save the password on that account.

I created a new demo account to continue to test there.

I'm also trying to get the hang of EFX's software. Their "pro" software locks up something awful and their base software is pretty barebones. I had been thinking of just going with MB Trading if I had to go with the barebones trading software. But EFX looks to be going towards charting software in the near future.

-------

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EUR/JPY - Entered short on 166.91, stop 167.71.

Success

The 220 grit sanding/smoothing step was exactly what I was looking for and the new method of grinding to marks on the top make for symmetrical stones with a good bezel line.

I'm well pleased.

I determined beyond any shadow of a doubt that the silicon carbide sanding pads are garbage. After sanding with 220 and 360 grit my stones did not have any ridges and were very nice looking. Then came the 600 grit sanding step. I had three 600 grit silicon carbide pads left. They put facets and ridges all over my stones. My irritation bordered on pure rage at my best efforts so far being defaced. Well, luckily I had ordered 600 diamond grit with the 360 grit and charged up a pad. The 600 diamond grit cleaned it up quick enough.

Then came the polishing. The tripoli shined up the stones on par with my normal two step polish of tripoli and cerium oxide. The cerium oxide wasn't able to shine it better than tripoli alone.

This makes sense based on something I read. One of my cab books makes the point that old timers were able to get a fine polish with just tripoli. That they had no need for finer grits.

Seems to me that if I can do a good enough job sanding, the tripoli is good enough for the found rocks I'm using now (feldspar, agate pebbles (not really sure what these pebbles are), and "quartzy" type stones). I'm planning on only using the cerium oxide for stones with poorly sanded spots.

Something else I found is that fine diamond grit can cut/grind as well as polish. I found this out on some stones where I was lazy on the fine grind step. I just kept to the edge of the pad and used moderate to heavy pressure.

So far the shapes I've been cutting are ovals, rounds, and thin ellipses. The ovals and rounds stay on the dop well enough but the thin ellipses do not. I suspect that this is caused by the high domes I've been cutting. Going forward I'll cut low to medium domes on that shape.

High domes can look nice but very high ones are a pain to smooth. I think I'll stop cutting that type.

Dura-tex pads and 220grit arrived

Will be trying them out this evening.

However, something irritating came up before the order came in.

In looking through Arrowhead Lapidary & Supply's catalog after ordering the dura-tex I came across both the micro-tex and crystalpad line.

The crystalpad line by Crystalite looked to be a direct competitor of Lapcraft. I went with the Lapcraft dura-tex due to it being pushed as durable. After the whole thing with the silicon carbide sanding pads, I wanted something that would last.

But, Lapcraft's micro-tex was sold with this as part of its description: "not as dense or durable as dura-tex, but it is more versatile. It is also a more universal pad that accepts a charge using finer grit sizes 260-1800". Both the catalog and website indicate that the dura-tex pad takes a charge from 180-1800.

It was clear that the dura-tex was more durable and took a coarser charge. But I had no way to quantify the micro-tex being more versatile or universal. So, I wrote Lapcraft by way of their website to ask what they meant by those terms on Tuesday. I've yet to hear back from them.

hmmm

After my order arrived I examined the dura-tex pad and noticed two things: #1 the label on the package said the pad was for grits 260-1800 and #2 how very like the uncharged disks (ordered from Arrowhead) they were.

Regarding #1 -- you'll note that is the same grit range as the micro-tex. That makes me leery of buying any more of their products.

Regarding #2 -- I decided to get my loupe out and compare them.

The Arrowhead uncharged disk is (from what I can tell) a resin coated canvas weave with 1mm x 0.1mm (approx.) pockets all over its surface. The dura-tex is a plastic disk with 1mm round divots all over its surface. The uncharged disk is firmer then the dura-tex.

I suspect that the larger divots on the dura-tex will hold more grit and will make the pad cut more aggressively. At this point I've seen no real wear on the uncharged disks.

My thinking so far is this:

• if the dura-tex does not cut more aggressively than the canvas disks, I see little point in paying the $5 for it over the ~$1 canvas disks
  
• unless the dura-tex pads last more than five times longer than the canvas disks I see no reason to pay more
  
• based on Lapcraft's lack of response, I'm more inclined to look at Crystalite's products
• Crystalite's pads are being pushed as "engineered to eliminate orange peel and undercutting". If those problems come up I'll look into them.
  

Along the lines of both Crystalite's and Lapcraft's pads, I've been wondering what would be used for grits finer than 50K. The best I can figure is resin coated canvas. This is what lead me to believe that canvas pads are not aggressive cutters. I'm not sure at this point, but if they aren't I plan on looking at Crystalite's pads over Lapcraft's.

A few more thoughts on sanding

Well, after finding out that sanding with diamond is pretty easy and cost effective, I'm willing to look at additional sanding steps.

The reason this is coming to mind again is because of all the ridges in my last batch of stones. Yes, if I had worked smaller batches I'd have been able to get rid of the worst of the ridges, but not all.

Looking though Riggle's diamond abrasives book again I noticed that he suggests sanding with near the same grit size as the fine grind (280). He states "The cutting action, however, is not the same because the smoothing wheel or disk has the cushioned surface, which has a gentler effect. With this grit, the scratches, plus any bumps or tiny flat spots that may have been left by the grinding wheel are smoothed away". That right there describes my complaint.

So not only have I ordered 220 grit diamond paste (closest to 280) but I'm going to try out a dura-tex pad. I can't tell from the descriptions if it is more laplike (stiff and flat) or more like a pad. However, it appears to hold the diamond grit better which might translate to more aggressive sanding.

If that works out, I'll replace the other sanding disks with dura-tex pads as they wear out.

I'm curious about polishing with diamond, but I don't see the point in the additional cost before I'm able to sell my end product.

Checking out MB trading. It is an ECN which means that they won't take the other side of your trade. Not liking their software all that much, but that they are a ECN is very appealing.

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GBP/USD - I did get out too early. Watching.
USD/JPY - No change on long 116.61, stop 112.29, limit 117.25.
AUD/USD - Watching.
USD/CAD - Watching.

Trial and error is useful but frustrating

My diamond grinding book arrived and I bought 360 and 600 grit diamond paste and two uncharged disks. The diamond worked as advertised. I sanded eleven stones before I had to recharge the disk. After eighteen stones it does not look worn. I'm well pleased about that.

However, I'm less than pleased with three errors I made:

1. I tried to do a huge batch at a time
2. I insisted on trying to work little stones in my fingers instead of dopping them
3. I experimented with my polishing

Re: #1 -- I decided to gather all of the found rocks that we'd collected so far. After cleaning and using the trim saw on the first batch (one more batch of found rocks before I get into the rocks we've found at the mines) I had sixty-four stones ready for the 100 grit wheel. I had been trying a new method that would get my stones closer to being sellable. After grinding forty-eight on the 100 grit I figured out how to get closer to that goal and that my current stones had domes that were too narrow and high. That is the first problem with doing large batches. If you try to do things in a repeatable fashion and you make a mistake, all of the items in the given batch will have the same mistake. Correcting the mistake would mean removing a great deal of material. So, even though nothing was lost and I did learn how to improve my method, it is incredibly frustrating to have 48 stones with the same error. The second problem with large batches is focus. After 1-4 hours of repetitive work I tend to go cross-eyed. Ridges and bumps that show up during 100 and 220 grit grinding are often small. But they stand out clearly after prepolish. The more I did, the more I missed.

Very frustrating.

Re: #2 -- Dopping stones is a bit of work... especially a large number of stones. Normally, it is easier to grind while holding the stone in my fingers. But once the stone gets to be under a centimeter, it is very difficult. Plus I manged to grind away around a third of the fingernails on my index and middle fingers of both hands. In the end my smaller stones had many ridges.

Re: #3 -- I had read that faceters sometimes mixed their diamond grit in petroleum jelly instead of oil. I had been mixing my polish in water and painting it onto the felt pad. As that was a bit messy I thought mixing it with petroleum jelly might be better. It wasn't. Best as I can tell, once the water drys up on a given polishing run the polish acts like it is bonded with the felt. This makes the polishing action much more aggressive. When the polish is mixed with petroleum jelly it never gets aggressive and the stone never gets a proper shine.

So, I now have eighteen stones with a crummy polish and thirty more with the error mentioned above.

grr

Might as well write down my current method (which is nothing more than a hodgepodge of what I've read).

1. Trim saw
2. Rough forming
3. Fine forming
4. Sanding/smoothing
5. Polishing

#1 -- Use the trim saw to get around 1.5-2mm of the drawn outline.
#2 -- Dop small stones! While holding the stone so that its bottom is on top, grind to around half a millimeter of the outline then flatten the bottom. Then grind the edge flat (about a 1/4mm from the outline). Measure and mark off the top of the bezel, which should be one third the height of the stone. "Mark the top of the stone in thirds from end to end and side to side"*. Then make a dot in the center of that marking. While continuing to hold the stone with the bottom on top, grind to around a quarter millimeter of both the bezel line and the line drawn on the top of the stone. Once the entire top of the stone has been ground that way, grind to the dot at a lesser angle. Lastly remove any large ridges or facets before rinsing off the stone.
#3 -- Lightly grind all over the sides and top of the stone to improve later polishing. Remove all ridges, facets, and bumps because sanding/smoothing will not remove them. If there are any major errors found at this stage (like an asymmetrical shape), go back to the 100 grit.
#4 -- Being careful to avoid the bezel line, sand all over the stone to improve later polishing. It is at this point ridges that were missed during steps 2-3 will begin to stand out. If you find them, go back to the 220 wheel.
#5 -- Same procedure for both tripoli and cerium oxide: mix polish with water and dab onto pre-moistened felt pad. Starting on the outside while the pad and polish are wet, use moderate pressure and twist and rock the stone. As the pad drys move towards the center of the pad. When you feel the pad tugging at the stone pay attention to heat and stay near the center of the pad. Do this all over the stone for a dull shine with the tripoli and a good luster with the cerium oxide. Note: if you are too near the outer edge of the pad when it starts to dry, you will get pitting and an odd "flow" of stone in the area worked. The only way to get rid of that is to go back to the sanding step.


At this point I'm going to try batches of five stones and finish off the eighteen stones that have been rough formed. Then I can test out grinding to both bezel and top markings.


* Cabochon Cutting by Jack Cox

EUR/USD - No change on 1.4202, stop 1.4442, limit 1.3847.
GBP/USD - Limited out on long 2.0141. Profit diff 284. But I think I got out too early. Not sure.
USD/JPY - Moved limit on long 116.61, stop 112.29, limit 117.25. This is looking like a bad trade. Even if I had used a limit entry, the exit signal happened on a big reversal. Update: I've removed the limit on this. Looking at it a bit more, the price may be fixing to jump very high... or not.
AUD/USD - Watching.
USD/CAD - Watching.

EUR/USD - Short limit activated on 10/11 at 1.4202, stop 1.4442, limit 1.3847.
GBP/USD - Moved stop and limit on long 2.0141, stop 1.9932, limit 2.0425. Still getting mixed signals.
USD/JPY - Moved stop on long 116.61, stop 112.29, limit 121.84.
AUD/USD - Watching.
USD/CAD - Watching.

Some thoughts on sanding

Still waiting for my diamond grinding book to arrive. So, I started googling around and pondering sanding disks, pads, and grit.

It makes sense that the 6" carbide sanding disks wear so quickly. Only out on the edge is there 6" of running space. All in all, sanding disks have very little surface area and must wear out quickly.

So, if a sanding belt can make use of its entire length, I think it reasonable to think the belt will last at least twice the time that a disk would. Ignoring that the old timers sanded dry, I think this explains why they used equipment with very long belts. I think the belts got shorter once diamond got more popular.

Something interesting I read on sanding with diamond is that as the diamond sanding belt is used up, it cuts slower but not finer. That's something that makes carbide difficult to sand with. It becomes finer as it is worn down.

Another thing I read was that diamond grit is cheaper than a diamond belt but is harder to work with. Considering that diamond belts are pretty pricey, I think I'm willing to work harder.

Last thing I found while googling around -- the reason that a soft backing is used when sanding cabs is to avoid making facets. So, in using such a light touch on the 400 grit, did I make an artificial flat lap? Thing is I can't push too hard either or else the carbide is used up in under two minutes and I risk hitting the backing plate and making facets that way.

Seems there is a window of use with the carbide wheels

Starting sometime after 1.5 hours I noticed a good deal of green clay coming off of the wheel.

I suspect that the water gets too far into the wheel around that time and it starts eating away at a much faster rate.

EUR/USD - Set a short limit at 1.4202, stop 1.4442, limit 1.3847.
GBP/USD - Moved stop on long 2.0141, stop 1.9855, limit 2.0978. Some signals are indicating that I should offset and others are saying to hold o.O
USD/JPY - No change on long 116.61, stop 112.05, limit 121.84. Hmm, seems like it wants to go long now.
AUD/USD - Watching. May give a short this week.
USD/CAD - Watching. May give a weak long this week.

I think I need to use diamond grit for sanding

My next stones showed me something interesting.

I used a very light touch on the 400 grit sandpaper and used only one disk for all six.

Well, when I tried to sand on the 600 grit and went through three pads on one stone I realized what was wrong. I was too tired when I thought I was finished with the 400 grit but ended up leaving many ridges and tables. So, I went back to the 400 grit and finished up.

This tells me that I do need two sanding steps.

Also, considering one sanding pad is only good for 1-2 stones, carbide sanding pads aren't cost effective.

I'll know more after I go through the diamond abrasives book.

I find a lot of truth in this link

It's frustrating.

I found some things I didn't like with Bush after his first term, but when Kerry came up as the Dem candidate I felt I had no other choice (like this time around if it's Hillery). Except now, the Republicans seem to have fully joined with the Democrats in only fielding people from the ruling class. By ruling class I mean people that have little to no connection to the middle class. Any connection displayed to the middle class is nothing more than smoke and mirrors designed only to get votes and money.

In my amateur's view of history I've seen this before. Both parties like the lower class because it is easily controlled with incentives. The lower class lacks the ability/desire to be free actors in life. The upper class does everything in its power to keep more households from joining its ranks as that would mean its influence would become watered down. The upper class *hates* dealing with direct competition.

"Competition is sin." - John D. Rockefeller

"If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead, it becomes logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite." - Gary Allen, author

That leaves the middle class. It is what moves society forward. The middle class, in effect, is society/culture.

What I've seen in other countries that have done well for themselves only to up and die in under a century is the ruling class (aristocracies, theocracies, and plutocracies) kills off (literally or through sanctions) the middle class.

In the US and too many other countries, I'm seeing the middle class having less and less of a say in how things get done. I'm seeing in the US the ever increasing debt load carried by people who should know better. I'm seeing the middle class killing itself through manufactured need for shiny toys that have no use beyond limited entertainment.

Bread and circuses.

Makes me worry.

My wheel dresser arrived

Worked nicely.

Now that I'm using light pressure on the wheel I notice no real wear.

I made my first attempt at using my templates. My thinking is that if I get that down, symmetric cutting will soon follow.

I found this to be very difficult. The four I tried ended up smaller than the template. I tried leaving one millimeter but working the bulges took too much off. I'll try leaving more space next time.

Waiting on the 600 grit paper and the diamond book to arrive. With a light touch I'm able to make the sandpaper last longer, but I keep running into little facets when the paper is near worn. I'm leaning towards sanding with diamond at this point.

EUR/USD - Watching. May give short this week.
GBP/USD - Moved stop on long 2.0141, stop 1.9768, limit 2.0978. Some indications that this will not hit my limit and I'll have to offset. Question: move stop real close?
USD/JPY - No change on long 116.61, stop 112.05, limit 121.84. Based on my other trades with this pair, I will stop watching it if it doesn't trade well.
AUD/USD - Limited out on long 0.8300. Profit diff 463. Should have set limit higher (7+ grid points up from 8/12 bar). Watching.
USD/CAD - Watching

The 220 grit wheel arrived

Yay!

I found the technique I used with the 100 grit stone to be frustratingly slow. But considering how alarmed I was at the speed the 100 grit cut when the stone was to form, this wasn't a bad thing.

I'm now sure that a sanding step is needed. I was able to get rid of most of the ridges but not all. Even if the cutting was slower, I found that if I persisted at trying to eliminate the ridges on the 220 wheel, I ended up making more ridges and taking off more than I wanted.

Use of the 220 wheel and a lighter touch prolonged the lifespan of the carbide sanding disks, but not by much.

I found the 400 grit to be too aggressive. I attribute this to all the grinding on the 220 wheel. In general, the closer to form I get the rock the faster any given grit will cut. The 400 grit disk was not anywhere this aggressive when it was dealing with much more carry over work from the 220 grit sanding disk. I have a few more 400 grit disks to test this assumption.

The 600 grit disks worked well. I suspect that they may work better when they are not correcting the problems introduced with the 400 grit disks. I'm irritated that I screwed up my last order and only bought two disks. I will have to get some more.

My question now is: Do I test a grit somewhere between 400 and 600 grit? Or try something between 600 and 1000 grit?

I'm well pleased with the tripoli. After finishing with it last night I brought out a finish similar to the cerium oxide finish I got on my first stone. When I moved to the cerium oxide after the tripoli I achieved a finish that displayed a pleasing depth in the stone. One stone in particular shows clear layers of cream with a window into a transparent center. I can only imagine what these stones would look like if I had worked the bottoms.

So, what is my progression like?

1st stone: Some rounded facet like tables all over the cab with a nice shine

2nd through 3rd: No faceting but not symmetrical. Some stones have a dome that have a full curve on one side and a shallow one on the other. One's edge is a nice oval on one side and has sort of a fatter bottom on the other. Nice polish on all.

4th stone: This was a problem stone that I didn't think I'd do well on but still wanted to try. It was some grayish white soft material with mica throughout. I tried working it from the edge as this caught all the mica chips on the edge giving a glittery appearance. The soft stone cut alarmingly fast and I was only able to bring up a soft luster on the dome. The attractive glitter does not show up in the finished product. The next time I find a rock with many mica chips in it, I'll work it from the side where the full face of the mica chips show as those edges took a better polish.

As I'm concerned about the state of my 100 grit wheel, further grinding will have to wait until my dresser arrives. However, my templates (from a different supplier) have arrived and I'll try my hand with the trim saw.

Update:

After looking around it appears that the finer carbide sanding pads come only in 400 and 600 grit.

So I'm going to order a bunch of 600 grit.

Considering how it is looking like I will be able to get away with one sanding step, I'm also going to order "How to Use Diamond Abrasive" by Riggle.

Hmm, that reminds me, I should mention the books I picked up along with my grinder.

"Cabochon Cutting" and "Advanced Cabochon Cutting" by Cox
"The Art of Gem Cutting" by Dake

All of these books are quite dated (especially the Dake book). However, what modern books I've found on this subject tend to have a great deal of fluff. Even if they are dated they still have useful hints and pointers. I'd have to say both of the Cox books have more useful info on cabs.

The real issue on cab books is that beyond a few specifics, the actual act of cutting and polishing cabs appears to vary greatly between cutters. An example I've seen several times is how cutter A claims one polishing agent is the best for whatever stone. While cutter B is unable to get any luster from cutter A's polishing agent, but gets wonderful results from a different agent.

So it would appear that anyone who wants to learn to cut cabs must put in time and effort actually cutting stones in order to discover what works best for him.

My first grinder

So, what to do with this rough stone?

Well, in googling around I found out a few things:

• As mentioned the other day, public mines are like a lottery and should really be approached as a family fun activity.
• Faceted stones do the best in general (i.e. More setting options and does well unset) but adequate rough is very pricey to just practice on. Synthetic is more reasonable but doesn't sell well.
• Cabochon (aka "cabs") cuts use cheaper rough and is generally thought of as "easy".
• Faceting equipment is very pricey. Generally the price goes along with precision. A skilled faceter can work around imprecise equipment but a rank amateur (i.e. me) can not.
• Cabbing equipment is pricey, but not as bad as faceting equipment. Looking at the lower price range there appears to be some junk mixed in with adequate equipment. The adequate equipment is cheap because it is inconvenient. By that I mean that the work zone in cramped, the wheels are thin, or only one wheel can be mounted on the arbor at one time.
• It is generally thought that, at the very least, a hobbist cutter will be able to pay for their hobby with what they make.
  

After some thought I decided that faceting equipment was too expensive to just try out. Especially, if I have no idea if I'm any good at it.

Low end cab equipment costs a few hundred dollars (under $400 if you look around). The all metal models have ok resale values if you find you can't cab very well. The main issue with low end cab equipment is inconvence. If you go with the plain arbor unit you'll have multiple wheels (two in the smaller units) to move to without slowing down, but no trim saw (trim saws save wear and tear on your wheels and can carve up small slabs). Units with a built in trim saw tend to be cramped in front of the wheel and allow only one wheel at a time (meaning you have to take time to switch wheels/sanding pads when you're ready for them).

I decided on the "Rock Rascal" model TM. It comes with a trim saw, 100 grit carbide wheel, 220 grit sand pad, felt polishing pad, mounting head for the pads, and a rubber backer for the pads.

Note on distributers: spend some time in pricing your equipment. You will find very large price differences for the same item at different sites (sometimes by several hundred dollars). I went with the cheapest I could find. That was a mistake. The invoice indicated that they were doing a week long inventory and wouldn't ship. Then it was back ordered. In the end it took about a month to get my grinder. It is near two months now and the last parts of my order have not arrived (a loupe, scribe, and templates). So if you do go with the cheapest distributer, you may just get what you get.

I had ordered some rough moonstone on ebay to go along with what was found at the public mines. Here too, don't go super cheap. Find common rough (like moonstone) that is pretty cheap to begin with and then be willing to pay a bit more. Two examples: #1 I first bought a pound of cheap moonstone for a little over $10. It had little flash or much usable stone. #2 I then bought 500ct of moonstone for the same price. Nearly all of it has nice electric blue flashes and is very usable.

But now that I had my grinder I didn't want my first attempts to be with my bought stone or the public mine stone. Luckly I had a substitute. My daughter has taken to bringing me stones that she finds. NC is pretty neat in that there are all sorts of interesting rocks just lying around. So I had a number of feldspar looking pebbles (translucent creamy colored stones that look stream smoothed).

My first grinding attempt was a learning experiance. Specifically, carbide sanding pads have a *very* short lifespan. I had bought some 400grit and 600grit sanding pads to go along with the base rock rascal. Every pad was spent before I was done with the stone. Around 5 minutes of useful life.

Now considering that the 100 grit wheel is used to get the stone formed roughly into shape and the 220 grit (sandpaper or wheel) is where the real work is done (all other work is smoothing in preparation for polishing), this would have me buying a ton of 220 grit sandpaper. Not to mention that the grinder only came with one 220 grit paper. I simply had no idea how very short a lifespan they had.

So, a 220 grit wheel is an absolute must with a rock rascal type setup.

Something I didn't like about the carbide sandpaper is that when the grit wore out in one area it was still ok in another. This caused some facet like aspects on my first stone. I'm pretty sure that using a 220 grit wheel will help with this, but it still bothers me. There are two other options available: diamond grit on a pad or diamond sandpaper. I'm going to use the carbide sandpaper again when my 220 wheel arrives. If I continue to have issues I'll look into the diamond grit. The diamond sandpaper is awful expensive and I have no idea if it can be recharged.

I had bought several grits of sandpaper the first time around thinking the coarse wheel and sandpaper would leave gouges. This wasn't the case. All grinding left smooth areas. Also, the closer I got to the desired form the faster the grit cut. Sometimes too fast. This left me thinking that I might want to try to get as much of the work done on the wheels as possible and then try just one sanding ~600 grit. If I can get down to one sanding I'd feel better about the costs of using diamond grit. But I just won't have a good idea until my 220 grit wheel arrives.

I used cerium oxide for my first stone and it worked pretty well. This time around I'm planning on prepolishing with tripoli. Tripoli has a grit of somewhere around 1000-1200.

So, if I had it to do over again:

Rock Rascal TM
Trim saw lubricant
220 grit carbide wheel (must have)
400 grit carbide sandpaper (not sure if needed)
600 grit carbide sandpaper (compare with diamond grit if this is the only sanding)
Tripoli with additional felt pad (haven't used at the time of this writing)
Cerium oxide (I suspect any general polish would work)
Carbide wheel dresser (needed with carbide wheels)
Dop wax (didn't use the first time which resulted in limited control)
Dops - various diameters of dowel 3-4" long (pretty much anything can be used)
1" wide paintbrush (for polish... get one per type of polish)
Dop wax preparation (I use old cans on the stove)
Templates (to form stones for commercial settings (not needed at first))
x10 Loupe (not needed at first)

Note on the wheel dresser: I suspect I used too much pressure on my first attempt as some uneveness has developed. This makes it hard to grind well. Remember - light pressure on the wheels.

At present, I've ground four other stones on the 100 grit wheel and am waiting for the 220 grit wheel to arrive. I think I'm catching on to working the coarse wheel as I can get the stone near to sanding ready. The thing that threw me off was how fast the coarse wheel ate into the stone when only ridges were left. I caught myself from cutting away too much, but I did cut more than I wanted on a couple of the new stones.

How I found out about stone cutting

In my daughter's fourth year she started to become interested in rocks. Very interested.

Mrs. Bear and I took this to be simple curiosity at first, but it wasn't so.

I suggested we find a museum with a large crystal exhibit and Mrs. Bear agreed. However, once she started poking around she found that NC is a gemstone dense state. She noted that there were several public mines in the state. So we picked a little one that was nearby and headed out.

My girl was enraptured. Generally, I'm lucky to get 10-15 minutes of good focus from her. That first day of sluicing the rocks... she was intent on the task for a full three hours. Amazing.

I became interested in how to make money on the stones. Heh.

To make a long story short, we hit a few public mines near to the house but generally just for my girl. Reading up in the archives here it became clear that #1 most public mines are "enriched" (operators introduce outside stone of little value to the dirt) and #2 that it is a lot like a lottery. By "lottery" I mean that it is highly unlikely that you'll find anything of real value (otherwise the mine wouldn't be public).

Still, my girl loves it and it got me interested in lapidary.

Next up, my first grinder.

EUR/USD - Limited out on long 1.3671. Profit diff 434. Watching
GBP/USD - Moved stop on long 2.0141, stop 1.9708, limit 2.0978
USD/JPY - No change on long 116.61, stop 112.05, limit 121.84
AUD/USD - No change on long 0.8300, stop 0.7850, limit 0.8763
USD/CAD - Watching

EUR/USD - Moved stop on long 1.3671, stop 1.3452, limit 1.4104
GBP/USD - Moved stop on long 2.0141, stop 1.9680, limit 2.0978
USD/JPY - No change on long 116.61, stop 112.05, limit 121.84
AUD/USD - No change on long 0.8300, stop 0.7850, limit 0.8763
USD/CAD - Watching. Starting to look like I could have gone short on the 8/12 bar

Today

Tuesday Morning

EUR/USD - Moved stop on long 1.3671, stop 1.3387, limit 1.4104
GBP/USD - Moved stop on long 2.0141, stop 1.9635, limit 2.0978
USD/JPY - No change on long 116.61, stop 112.05, limit 121.84. This may end up a loser. Need to check on my CCI.
AUD/USD - Moved stop on long 0.8300, stop 0.7850, limit 0.8763
USD/CAD - Watching.

I'm thinking I'm going to try some entry stops next time around as well.

EUR/USD - No change on long 1.3671, stop 1.3220, limit 1.4104
GBP/USD - No change on long 2.0141, stop 1.9435, limit 2.0978
USD/JPY - No change on long 116.61, stop 112.05, limit 121.84
AUD/USD - No change on long 0.8300, stop 0.7725, limit 0.8763
USD/CAD - Thought about it some more and the monthly chart won't work as trades span years. Watching.