Working with Turquoise I – Treatment Types

I've been doing lapidary as a hobby for a while and a few years ago I really got into turquoise. I see people sometimes being confused about what is stabilized vs natural vs backed turquoise so that's what I'll go into in this post. Natural turquoise Only a small percentage of turquoise that is dug …

Dopping stones with super glue and nails

Some of my recent Royston turquoise haul. So first – if you’re not familiar with lapidary arts (playing with pretty rocks) you might not know what dopping a stone means. It is basically attaching a small-ish piece of pre-formed stone to a stick – wooden dowel, nail… – so that you can hold onto the …

Hi-Tech Diamond 4/5″ trim saw – first impressions

Hi-Tech Diamond 4/5" trim saw. I recently bought a used Hi-Tech Diamond 4/5" trim saw. I bough it specifically to cut thin slabs of and trim turquoise. You want to use a very thin blade (~0.018") for that to lose as little material as possible and higher speed than the 1725RPM that a lot of …

A better water system for Hi-Tech All-U-Need flat lap

All-U-Need with the Pro Flow attachment. Water everywhere and the rattling My Hi-Tech Diamond flat lap has been a second-class citizen in my shop, sitting alone and forgotten in a corner, for a while now. I bought it used to have something to finish the backs of my cabs on but found it hard to …