"Get the best out of your stone"

  If you are beginning lapidary, you will want to begin with common stones that are easy to obtain and predictable to work with. What do I mean by predictable? It would be materials that would be easier to work with because of certain characteristics inherant in the materials we are, about to discuss. Picking a stone or material that you want to work with, is just as important as your skill, at cutting and polishing it. With some very basic information you can make informed choices and logical decisions, based on what you observe and how certain stones are known to behave. Really it's just allot of common sense and not an exact science. But knowing some of what exactly to look for can help you make better choices, in your materials. Basically when beginning you will want to look for materials that are hard. On the Mohs scale of hardness anything harder than 5. It's an easy test to preform. Your basic pocket knife has a hardness of 5 and if you can scratch your material with it it would be too soft to work with. I only suggest this as you begin your journey, into Lapidary. As harder stones will help you to refine your skill at shaping and polishing. It will also allow you some experimentation working with allot of different materials.

There are a multitude of materials, just under these generalized material headings. Though very different, in textures, patterns and colors these materials offer you the very kind of hardness you are looking for. They also offer a great variety of materials with which to work with and are relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain.

As a small token to familiarize you with some of these materials it is good to know that the quartz family of materials is so large, it embodies 86% of the earth's crust. That's allot of rocks folks. Jasper is microcrystiline quartz, petrified materials have a quartz and other minerals that give it its colors like iron and nickel that replaced the wood over millions of years, and tiger iron or tigereye is also quartz too. Agate typically is born of very hot gaseous solutions of minerals under allot of pressure, but is essentially quartzes also. So as you can see these harder materials are essentially quartz and other minerals like iron, magnanese, and nickel. To give it every color in the rainbow and in every combination imaginable. While most quartzes are inexpensive and easy to obtain not every quartz brother stone will be. So as a general rule. "Anything". And I mean anything that is execeedingly beautiful will be worth more than most everything else that is medium pretty.

Once you have the material you want and have tested it for it's hardness you will have to decide what you want to get out of your material. It would be a sliced portion of your stone or slab. This might be a special pattern, grouping of colors or has just caught your eye.

It is important to remember that "sometimes" you will not be able to get every special part, out of every stone you encounter.

Cracks and fissures should be avoided if possible. If you just can't live without these features you will need to seal them with a colorless epoxy or sealer. These cracks and fissures may cause breakage or marr the surface polish of your design. Uneven surfaces can also cause you great difficulties. Sometimes it is just better to bypass these problems with your rough stones for better suited materials. Also positioning, in the saw to, cut your special part out of your rock will sometimes hinder your plans. You can solve this by attaching your stone to a block of wood with Elmers glue so that sawing your slice won't be limited to positioning with the jaws of the rock cradle, in the saw alone. Simply soaking your stone and block. in warm water will eventually loosen it from being glued. All of these things should be considered, before planning your cuts. It is also a good trick to spend allot of time studying your stone. See if you can follow the patterns, into the stone to see if it might afford you more than one choice of pattern and/or coloration. You may even want to use a marker to help you plan out your exploration, into a stone. Much like a surgeon, cutting away material to reveal the special part you are after. It also might take several cuts, into your stone, before something viable might reveal itself. Even, after the most careful planning not all of your ventures will be sucessful all of the time. It is just the nature of Lapidary. But with all of these tips you might find it a more interesting and informed approach to this hobby. Eventually you will find yourself well practiced and will want to venture out, into softer and sometimes more expensive materials. The same exact techniques may be used to plan your explorations. Just remember to have a little more patience and practice on smaller portion/parts of the more expensive materials, before going all out to create something you have no experience with.

I hope you find these tips useful and enjoyable ways discover this exciting and rewarding hobby of the Lapidary arts.

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