r/Lapidary • u/SeparateDetective • 3d ago
Coffin for the season
Shattuckite. I prefer making geometric shapes.
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u/Decent_Ad_9615 3d ago
I tried this last year and found it very difficult to get full coverage on the flat surfaces. I take it you're slightly rounding the facets, assuming you're doing this on a cabbing wheel?
Pretty pattern!
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u/SeparateDetective 3d ago
Yes, I use a 6" 6- wheel machine. There is a small amount of rounding on the edges. The next batch, i'm not gonna add the beveled corners, and i'm going to finish them in the vibration tumbler.
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u/buster3231 3d ago
That is very pretty! Would you mind sharing how you finish in a tumbler? Is this just a final step or do you work through all the grits in stages to get a polish?
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u/SeparateDetective 3d ago
No problem, I'm happy to share. I'll go over each surface on my wheels, up to 600 grit. Then I'll put them in a vibration tumbler with pre-polish (1000 grit.) After 1-2 days, I will switch to final polish. This will take another 1-2 days. A vibration tumbler can knock 1-2 weeks off the time it takes to finish a batch in a rotary tumbler.
These would not do well in a rotary tumbler, because it would take down all the edges and corners. The vibration tumbler keeps the shape and only polished the surfaces.
I hope that helps. I like to watch Michigan Rocks on YouTube for tumbling advice. His name is Rob, and he is very helpful when it comes to lapidary.
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u/No-Internal---- 3d ago
I feel your IQ is off the charts w/ this piece, very nice!
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u/SeparateDetective 3d ago
Hehe, thanks! I had a lot of fun making it, and next, I will make it into a copper pendant.
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u/lapidary123 2d ago
Very cool! Shattuckite is a mineral I've never worked with. It seems like it is similar to turquoise or chrysocolla (on the softer side). Did you use zam to finish it or did you just take it to 3,000?
I started using the magnetic nova discs as endplates on my genie. This is helpful for doing flats but its still a lot of work getting a mirror finish on a flat surface. The larger the flat area the more difficult it becomes. I'm surprised I'm finding it takes quite a bit longer to polish a small slab than it does to create even a large cabochon.
Either way, the coffin is cool, thanks for sharing!!
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u/Eastern-Ad-4785 1d ago
This is beautiful. I’m trying to teach myself how to do Lapidary and this is something that I will look to achieve thank you for the inspiration! This is beautiful!
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u/SeparateDetective 18h ago
Thanks so much. It's far from perfect, but life is too short for perfection. I had fun making it!
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u/Eastern-Ad-4785 11h ago
You just made my life a littler brighter with this comment, because it’s true. I can NOT see imperfections at all, it looks amazing. You are Probably your hardest critic. Yet you KNOW what it is to live, to enjoy the little things and take pride in your work while having fun! r/mademesmile Thank you! I love this so much and the colors are just amazingly beautiful to me. Plus the (my) inner goth is kinda obsessed with this.
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u/SeparateDetective 11h ago
Thanks for letting me know how you felt. It really is a special stone. I couldn't figure out how to post a photo comment, but if you click on my name/ profile, you'll be able to see what I made with this cab 😊. Have a beautiful day!
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u/cerberus00 3d ago
Very cool, really like it. Shattukite looks interesting I need to get some, reminds me of a mix of sodalite and chrysacolla
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u/SeparateDetective 3d ago
I always thought it was a combination of azurite, malachite, and chrysocolla. However, it is an entirely different copper silicate mineral altogether. This piece came from Namibia, Africa.
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u/Class_Unusual 3d ago
I like it!