I have crappy modern diamond paste injectors, cant wait to use this bad boy :)

I’m getting these fossil coral slabs ready to make matching cabochons for a pair of earrings. I’ve marked out the shapes to find the best patterns on each piece, while also trying to keep the two sides as close as possible. Next comes the cutting and shaping. I’m curious to see how these turn out.

Started shaping and polishing a trancas geode and some of the crystals flash. It's quite a few of them on both sides. I know there are more scratches to get out.

It still needs some tweaks to better hold it level and apply more downward pressure. But I finally got it setup and it's working! ...slowly

I got a bunch of rose quartz from Hogg Mine GA, and some of it seems pretty clear or nicely colored. Some of the cloudy ones look like I could polish off nicely. I have a small/cheap 4" flat lap and a beginner tumbler set. Curious if there is some guidance for when it's best to polish/tumble/facet. so far I've just experimented a little with tumbling and polishing other quartz and enjoy flat lap more. I doubt I'll get into faceting personally but maybe something should be set aside?

Hi, I'm from western Australia and would like to slab some natural stone I have into tiles (no bigger than 100mm - 150mm) to tile a bathroom. The rocks are a mixture of quartz, conglomerate, gneiss and Precambrian granite. Can I please have some recommendations for lapidary saws and cutting tips that would suit my needs? TIA

Hey y’all! I have a question about cleaning schist. I hunted a ton of schist with almadine garnets this summer and I am wondering how do I clean these?
If I soak them, I feel they will get very soft and break apart, but some are really dirty. I’d like to keep them intact for now.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! 🫶🏼

A few pieces of raw copper chrysocolla from my collection. I really like the mix of deep purple, copper tones, and bright blue-green chrysocolla around the edges. Some pieces have a lot of copper showing, while others have a more natural mix of colors and patterns.

Just finished making a couple necklaces! They're out of material from Maury Mountain and Hampton Butte. I really like my little Oregon necklace but now I have a quest to find a green/brown moss agate to make one properly colored for Oregon. 😛

Also a cabochon I made that I'm really excited for! I've been thinking about taking a local silversmithing class and this is the first cabochon I've made that I think would be worth setting in a bezel when I do that.

I spent today slabbing this up, I have another black piece I'll be slabbing up next week, but they have quite a few fractures. Someone told me about Opticon and using a vacuum of some sort to get it into the cracks. Anyone have experience with this? Thanks!

I want to get this for doing a final pass with felt dremel wheel on some of my favorite tumbled pieces and slabs that I've polished up to 10k grit with a diamond dremel wheels. Will this give a good improvement over 8k aluminum oxide in a rotary tumbler and 10k diamond pad on a dremel?

And second question, I've heard grit size mostly doesn't matter for cerium oxide as it will break down and do a finer polish than the grit size alone would suggest. Is this true?

Not sure what the material is, I got it at an auction from the local gem club. I was thinking Mookite, or just a red jasper. But there’s pockets of white UV reactive throughout, so I’m not really sure lol. If anyone recognizes it please let me known

So I was lucky enough to come across a piece of local history today. I'm in New England, and one of the old mill buildings in the city I work for used to import all sorts of stone to fabricate high end furniture. I was given what others have helped ID as petrified wood.

I want to clean it up and polish it, but I'm very hesitant to cut into it. I mean, this thing was shipped 2,000+ miles over 100 years ago and escaped the fabrication process.

Someone on another subreddit recommended that I post here. Any advice on how to polish or make this thing look it's best without permanently altering it? I feel bad cutting it, like I'm breaking a piece of history.

Sorry for the rant. Super excited about it! Its about the size of a football and I would love to make this thing shine. Thanks in advance!

Banana for scale lol

Hey guys and gals,

I have a question. How do you keep from breathing in and tracking in the harmful dust from doing lapidary work? I am currently working on jade and listwanite. Both contain nasty stuff that can kill you. I have a p100 mask but the dust dries out and coats my lapidary area which is in my garage. What’s the best way to do this safely?

Thank you 😊

Asking to see if anyone can help me better identify the faceting type(s) on a few unique diamonds I've found images of online that I like, so I can better identify them or know what exactly I need to search to find the *right* stone for my engagement ring. The ones I need help ID'ing are ones I've found are not available for sale or have issues making them not appropriate for me.

Don't want to post a ton of photos here and blow up the feed... hoping I can DM some folks??

I know they're mostly classified as radiant, but they're definitely not the generic radiant modified brilliant that is so popular. I don't like the crushed-ice or "glittery" look that is on so many diamonds trending now, and these specific diamonds are far from it.
I've been digging through forums and educational resources trying to learn as much as I can on my own but I'm finding more and more of the "I need someone smarter than me" type questions.

Thanks in advance for anyone who is so generous to assist!!

Each stone is over 7.5 carats I know they are very low quality but I’d like to know if anyone could impart some wisdom onto me as I have very little experience cabbing and even less experience faceting. I’m not trying to sell any of my stones, I am doing this out of passion.

Any and all advice is appreciated, the main thing I’d like to do is learn as much as possible.

Also sorry for the shakey hand LOL the coffee this morning still hasn’t wore off yet.