⭐ Show Us Your Cut Stones - Before And After Photos

[Lefty]

Actually it can be a lot easier than it used to be.. Peg your claim and have to wait 12 months ! Now you can get through the process in about 2 weeks ... Or is this not the time frame your experiencing ?

Doesn't sound like you're in Queensland Kingsolomon? Cripes, if it can now be done in a fortnight and I had known I would have waited! A check of the interactive resource tenure map shows claims approved over the past 5 or 6 years here took an average of 6 months from the date of lodgement, though some took a year (I was told up to a year by the official at the mines office in Emerald.) I'm currently 8 months and my application must now pass through the new native title process. This process will take a minimum of four months to complete once it goes out to advertising - it has not yet been released for said advertising. That is due to begin in a couple of weeks time. If after four months, no indigenous parties have objected then I guess it goes back to the mining registrar for final consideration. So I'm guessing that it might be approved in about another 5 months. Of course by that time, the heat is starting to climb out there and the possibility of heavy rainfall increasing - I have all the machines sitting here in the shed but I doubt I will get a good solid crack at using them until about Easter next year. So I'm looking at over a year for approval and probably over 18 months before it will be practical to get stuck into it.

 

[Heatho]

Farout Lefty you wouldn't want to drop that on your foot it's that big. I reckon there's a stone or 3 in it.

Would cut a nice Trillion shape that stone with the White pipe..........

 

[Lefty]

Farout Lefty you wouldn't want to drop that on your foot it's that big. I reckon there's a stone or 3 in it.

Would cut a nice Trillion shape that stone with the White pipe..........

It practically did drop on dad's foot Heatho - it wasn't found in the sieves, just dropped straight out of the wash layer as he was chipping away

I'm intruiged by that stone of Kingsolomon's - I don't think I've ever seen white sapphire. Not that I can recall anyway. Saw photos of a purple one that was found at Bedford hill, near Rubyvale.

 

[Heatho]

Classic. Ouch was that just a giant Sapphire that fell on my foot?

It is a very nice and quite a unique stone, will be great to see it once Barney cuts it. Some very interesting stones out there to find, I've got 1 that's totally clear and another thats clear in the centre of the cross table but Blue on the ends of the stone.

I really like the the Violet and Purple ones.

 

[Kingsolomon]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1229/1394281239_image.jpg

Another pic of the same stones

Did you cut theses varts? Or lambert s?....

 

[Kingsolomon]

I use a dual polishing lap... A special alloy, it has a section for 3000 and 50000 diamond paste/grit that I burn in with a piece of leather. This need to be cleaned and replaced with new grit as it lends itself to sticking to the stone.

Do you go straight from 3000 to 50000? Job done! Or are there more steps?

You go through steps like polishing anything . Start at about 800... Thn use the index wheel to get your facets to a certain degree , repeat , then look where you went wrong. , repeat . Same thing again . Wondr where you went wrong . Then breathe a sigh of relief , you think you've finished . If you think the stone is done? Then you've had to many beers . Repeat.

 

[Varts]

No lamberts
Those are all my doing

I m no gun cutter, just learning.this pic shows em upside down
Are they wrong?can you see faults ,if so what are they?

 

[Varts]

The red stone on the right is the one I left the girdle fat to leave a bit of wieght on

 

[Varts]

I have not sent any to lamberts yet,but do plan to send some.

 

[Kingsolomon]

What machine you got varts?...

 

[Kingsolomon]

No lamberts
Those are all my doing

I m no gun cutter, just learning.this pic shows em upside down
Are they wrong?can you see faults ,if so what are they?

Hard to tell from photos varts . Look pretty good to me. Guess we have to have a meet up now . Maybe catch up for a dig at Oberon or mudgee , think ill spend a bit of time that way while its cold. Heard it snowing at sofala last couple days ... You've met up with heatho , yeah?...

 

[Wally69]

I use a dual polishing lap... A special alloy, it has a section for 3000 and 50000 diamond paste/grit that I burn in with a piece of leather. This need to be cleaned and replaced with new grit as it lends itself to sticking to the stone.

Do you go straight from 3000 to 50000? Job done! Or are there more steps?

You go through steps like polishing anything . Start at about 800... Thn use the index wheel to get your facets to a certain degree , repeat , then look where you went wrong. , repeat . Same thing again . Wondr where you went wrong . Then breathe a sigh of relief , you think you've finished . If you think the stone is done? Then you've had to many beers . Repeat.

Thanks, I have had trouble getting a mirror finish and concluded that I need to get some diamond paste before I cut some more.

I just purchased a 3000 diamond disk so was thinking I would need to get 50000 and 100000 diamond paste in addition to the ruby powder that came with my secondhand kit. Do you find the 50000 finishes well by itself?

 

[Varts]

Was out black springs today,to cold to dig .talked to a couple out there and the old bloke tex for about an hr then come home with no dirt ,looking around native dog creek etc
Was keen but the cold beat me

 

[Kingsolomon]

Here's the lap I use , the 50,000 goes in centre , 3,000 on outside . You can get a good Finnish as the 3000 wears away . Only need to touch it a bit with the 50 . Don't know if you'll need the 100. But I'm still on the learning curve as well. What material are you cutting?

 

[Varts]

Cut on tin,polish on copper
It's my fathers gear I use,and he is the teach,

 

[Kingsolomon]

Looks like a good system ... I only noticed that because a beer bottle was incorporated with the photo... still looks like quality stuff...

 

[Varts]

I have been checking those two grade laps on aus saphire ,it takes some effort to get the dia dust onto the copper,
There must be a easier way,you could cut and shine with the copper but it wears the diamond charge off pretty quick,
I was thinking of getting one of the VJ machines and getting right into it ,but I don't know if my eyes have another 10 years in them

 

[Wally69]

Only done a handful of Glen Innes sapphire bombs and some poor quality chips to test my polishing skills so far. Some faces came up ok but others were pretty ordinary with the powders I have. The size of the grit is not marked so thinking it may be too coarse.

I have a Moranbah diamond on the machine waiting for me to source some paste of a known size, am thinking I needed to practice on some quartz before I tackled a decent stones as I have tended to over cut the odd face so far.

 

[Varts]

Yeah it's out the central west ,very hot.......
If all goes good it takes about 4/5 of them small bottles per stone

 

[Wally69]

A before shot