Cabbing Amazonite

[Former_Member]

Went to the local mine yesday and pulled some really nice amazonite, just curious if anyone has ever messed with it before. If so is there anything i should be aware of?

[Former_Member]

Hi Niko

Amazonite is about 5 in hardness and not hard to polish. You have to orientate this stone like you would any Feldspar. To get the full effect of the stone you have to slab it parallel to the cleavage. I you don't understand what I am saying let me know and will try to explain it better.
What are you using for grinding and polishing?

[Former_Member]

I'm checking on a local rock club that allows you to use the equipment they have after a training course. I am also looking at maybe getting a lap wheel. Seen a all in one for 600 ish. But for right now i broke out the dremmel, i use to carve stone with it and it seems to be doing a great job on this amazonite.

I looked up what you said about slabing it parallel to the cleavage and think i understand. Does that mean cutting it along the lines of the layers, instead of through the layers? I am a complete beginner at cabbing so i may be way off lol.

[Former_Member]

Just a small idea Niko
When on a budget one has to work within that. I hope your local rock club does have stone cutters..the one here does not...But you mention equipment so they must cut..Probally a very good place to work out of. My ebay customer base of thousands have taught me many things. Many use local college setups also. But my thought is that you can get a little small tumbler to finish your stones with after you grind them some with your dremel. Some stones will not tumble corectly and some will..I feel amozonite is one that will not. Some thing you might try is a tumbled rock selling location and just alter those to fit what you need..they are all ready shined and all you would need to do is just work the bottom of the stones to fit your needs..
James

[Former_Member]

Thats a great Idea Jim, and with the amount of amazonite i pulled and with me going back next weekend i can afford to try some in a tumbler. Given the hardness of the stone how long do you reckon the first tumble should be?

[Former_Member]

Cut along the the lines not thru it.

[Former_Member]

I am not sure amozonite will tumble well. I have tried tumbling spectrolite a few years ago and it did not work well..both are feldspars. The orintation if you will get in sunlight and put it over head of you and turn the stone until you see the relective planes that is what you want facing up. have a pencil or marker and draw a line to that refective plane. Since you have amozonite in your back yard and maybe cheap..it is s good place to start making jewerly from. I would think at the mines there should be cuttting information and also if any local rock club... being local would have worked this stone up also. I personally have never worked amozonite.

[Former_Member]

If you want to try tumbling the first step is to get rid of scratches or over burden..that is your call and will require you to look at the material as you go. There are two types of tumblers..rotary and vibrasonic. Rotary takes a long time but pretty much just runs without much interaction but takes a month or two. vibrasonics are fast and cut that time to a little more than a week. Since fast and creating a lot of muck..muck is ground rock... you have to watch them and change the water and clean and make sure the tumbler is not bound up with much. If ever bound up and not vibrating with a smooth vibration the action will pound the rocks against each other and pit and crack the surface...so they take monitoring.

[StoneTemple]

Yeah, I wouldn't bother tumbling it, too fragile. If you do tumble it only tumble it with other amazonite or other material of the same hardness. If you throw it in a tumbler with a bunch of agate the agate will pulverize it and anything else that's softer. well, that's been my experiance anyway.
But yeah, use the main cleavage plane as your flat base and cab or carve as you like. I've never worked it myself but have looked at a fair amount of rough and finished stones. It would be fun to carve it.

[Former_Member]

Man you folks rock :), thanks for all the info. The couple little bitty pieces i did with the dremel turned out nice enough for me to wait till i can get to the local club and get some training. I can do a few decent small pieces for now. Carves easy enough but can vary alot from piece to piece. I have some specked with black and the blue is almost a powder blue turquoise color. They seem to be much harder and not layered as badly.

[StoneTemple]

Diamond Pacific makes mini Nova polishing points, only 2 basic shapes in 2 sizes but you can shape them to suit your needs. Sold individually or in sets of four grits which is all you really want anyway. They also make mini nova wheels but I don't like them. Your results may vary :D
You want to use these with water so if you're using a dremel type tool you may want to consider a flex shaft attachment to help keep the electric motor away from water spray.

[Former_Member]

Those disk look good, i have a flex shaft tool also but its a off brand and i only really trust it for cutting my rings up. But i can use the dremel with the flex attachment. I'll be posting pics of my first amazonite piece on my FB page if yall happen to get by there. Thanks again for all the replys , you guys really make a fella feel welcome :).