There are times when we are looking for something special that Nature has to offer. That being said, we have learned that larger is not necessarily better! Some of your better Gemstone material comes in the form of small pebbles. The natural designs are tighter and the cracks/fractures and vugs are easier to work around.

Sometimes small is desirable.

We take our rough and tumble it in 60/90 Grit for 14 days, recharging on the seventh day.

Primeval ooze is removed during the tumbling process, showing the Gemstone designs and imperfections (fig.1).

Fig. 1

After the tumbling process,

we visually inspect each Gemstone and handselect our Cabochon candidates.

Our 4 Stone selection weighs about 6 ounces total and are about 1 1/4" each in diameter.

They are:

Queensland Agate	Lake Superior Agate	Queensland Agate	Lake Superior Agate

Using a 6" trim saw, we cut 3/16" to 1/4" thick slabs from the pebbles, sawing along any cracks or fractures. This will minimize our waste factor.

We've ended up with these 10 Designer slabs after about 20 minutes of sawing (fig.2).

Not a bad return on four pieces of rough.

Fig. 2

Next step, mark and cut/grind Cabochons.

Return to Cabochon Cutting.