|
How We Cut Cabochons - A photo essay of the Blue Herons at work.
We thought it might be interesting for everyone to get a brief glimpse of how we cut our gemstones. There are as many cutting methods & tooling procedures as there are lapidaries. What we have done is experiment with different tooling combinations until we arrived at procedures that work for us. We hope this photo essay clears up some of the questions you might have. In the future, we hope to imbed video which would allow a more detailed explanation of how we cut our cabochons.
All of the pictured equipment can be purchased from
Kingsley North
Please email us with any comments or questions. We can be reached at info@blueherongems.com or
blueherongem@gmail.com.
|
This two wheel roughing & fine wheel system
features an "Add A Unit" arbor manufactured by
Diamond Pacific. The coolant which is water is
supplied by an air pump connected to
a brass sprayer which "gurgles" water onto
the wheels providing both coolant & keeps
the wheel clear of debris. The brass sprayer can
be quickly moved from wheel to wheel.
|
In my hand I am holding a rough preform that is
epoxyed to what is called a "dop" stick. This
preform is ready to be shaped & domed
on the sintered diamond 80 grit roughing
wheel. These wheels will last literally
years with daily use & are crucial to low
cost cutting. | |
After the roughing in comes the difficult part
which is removing all those scratches that were
just put in & this sintered 180 grit diamond wheel
does a fine job of that.
|
Many
cutters do all their cutting on 6 wheels
but we added a 7th which is a 280 grit Turbine
Wheel by Crystalite which prepares the preform
well for sanding with a very smooth scratch pattern. | |
The long process of sanding begins with this wheel on the
right which is a Nova 280 grit 8" wheel manufactured by
Diamond Pacific. The wheels are aggressive & expensive
but they are also long lasting & fast. This wheel is
flexible so it will conform to the domed surface of the
stone resulting in smoothing & a matte finish. The wheel
on the left is the same as the right except it is a Nova
600 grit wheel. With this wheel, fine sanding begins
& will result in a moderate polish. |
The two wheels pictured here are the real workhorses in
terms of establishing an excellent pre-polish before going to
the actual polish. On the right is a 1200 sanding wheel & on
the left is a 3000 sanding wheel. Once sanding is complete
on the 3000 wheel, the stone will have a brilliant polish,
especially on materials like Agate, Jasper, etc. |
|
