2023-1-2: Ohio Flint
I recently held a contest on Facebook asking for suggestions on how to cut a slab of Ohio Flint. I was flooded with responses and really appreciate all of the ideas (even yours Rob...), but I could only choose one in the end. I'm half way through the process but thought I'd share the progress and the first cabochon out of the batch.
Here's the winning layout suggested by my loyal fans. Thank you!! I think these will turn out great.
Open up the saw and get some water in there to keep things cool (like me).
Here it is all roughed out.
This is the one I'll be starting with. I make a lot of tear drop shapes to test out a new piece of rough because they look great but also because I can be pretty consistent with how they turn out.
Let's get this party started on the 80 grit hard wheel.
First cut complete
Starting on the dome. Did I mention I cut a groove in the side of this? There was a little chipping but we can take care of that.
Dome complete on the 220 wheel.
After the 280 I noticed some spots that I had missed. A quick tip is that you can draw right on the rock to help make sure you get those areas smoothed out.
280 complete
600 complete. This rock has a little bit of pitting. I'm going to go with it.
Starting to shine after the 1200 grit.
3000 fiished.
I did a final polish on this and here's the result.
The glamour shot! I orignally thought those white specs were pieces I had missed but upon closer inspection it's just coloring in the rock.
Ready to wire wrap
This time around, I had some extra encouragement from my Aunt's new boyfriend. They're getting pretty serious according to my Uncle, so I decided to start letting him give me some advice. He is one of my most dedicated fans after all!
