Madras trip 2013

[Redrummd]

I have some photos of the stone I got this year in Madras so I thought I would post some photos here. I have started cutting some of the biggest pieces with somewhat mixed results. I expect to take a couple of weeks to sort, cut and preform and I expect some really nice knives for the next year.

These photos show Stony Creek Poppy Jasper, Graveyard Point Plume Agate, Willow Creek Jasper, Lepidolite from Wyoming, Sonora Sunrise, Blue Lace Agate from Africa, Deschutes and a flat top Piranha Agate.

The Piranha is a bit disappointing so far but I am only about 2 inches into it. If you look at the top you can see some lines in the stone. They looked to be just in the skin but they are still showing two inches in. I think the original cut may have been a fortunate cut that just missed them. They are fully healed but I do not like lines showing in my knives that look like they are cracks. Arizona Petrified Wood has these same sort of lines and I seldom find any without the lines.

There remains about 5 to 6 inches to go and I did not see any on the end I glued the block too so there may still be good news.

 

[testdw]

Mike,
Thanks for the Madras Pictures. I see some interesting and nice looking stones. Hope you do well with all these purchases.
Dennis

 

[Redrummd]

This group shows the Willow Creek slabs a bit better, the Indonesian Purple Chalcedony, small slabs of Imperial Jasper, small Burro Creek Jasper, Carrasite, A new find of Marra Mamba Tiger Eye, ocean Jasper and Lapis Lazuli from Afganistan.

The most intriguing is the Marra Mamba as it looks to be a very hard colorful Jasper kind of like Mookaite in brightness and there are small bands of brightly colored Tiger Eye in parts of the slabs. I think I am going to start with just using the Marra Mamba Jasper before risking the bands of the Tiger Eye in the slabs. I was only able to get a few slabs of this stone.

 

[Redrummd]

This last group shows another shot of the Blue Lace, Lepidalite, Sonora Sunrise, Deschutes and Piranha Agate.

The Lepidalite is very interesting as it is basically Mica, a very soft stone but this piece has some Quartz mixed in. The seller has a sphere made from this same piece and it was GORGEOUS. The purple color is caused by Lithium and the tiny Mica flakes look like fine glitter in the stone. It kind of looks like the sparkle in Aventurine.

Now if the Sonora Sunrise gets a lot of interest the dealer has several big pieces he did not bring with him to the show that I could buy - at $20 a pound!

 

[Redrummd]

I should mention that the Bouse Arizona Chrysocolla/Malachite miner did not come to the Madras show so that source of the bright blue and green stone is no more. I have just a couple of slabs left and the knives I currently have finished will be listed on Ebay and if they not get my minimum asking price I will move them to my Art In Stone website.

The Jade dealer who had the Siberian Jade last year was also not there this year so my source for Siberian Jade is also gone. In fact there is no new Siberian Jade being mined as the site is under a lake now. Once my "stash" is used up that will too be gone.

 

[hohenstreetroa]

That is some great looking stone, Michael! I can't wait to see what you do with it!

 

[Redrummd]

I am close to finished knives with some stone from this trip. I plan to do another group with stone from Madras as soon as I finish this group.

 

[Redrummd]

I always need to do test knives with new stone as there are so many variables to figure out. As an example I had one of the test knives done with the Stony Creek Flower Jasper end up showing "lines" when I finished polishing. These lines look absolutely solid on the unworked slabs and even all the way through wet sanding and wet polishing as the lines hold water. So, basically they do not show until the knife is finished and dry.

I took some pictures to show what the polished lines look like, the slab before cutting looking very solid and lastly the line after getting it wet on the slab and slowly drying. As you can see the line does hold water and is softer than the rest of the stone which makes it a great line but not so great at polishing.

The stone slabs are large so I will try to work around the lines as much as possible....

 

[Redrummd]

Now for the flip side of disappointment on to the great reward - Lepidalite in Quartz. This is a rare mix that I had absolutely never seen before and it is a gorgeous purple with glitter inside. It does have a very slight "orange peel" to the final polish that is caused by the much softer Lepidalite cutting much faster than the hard Quartz.

The photos show the end polish and color and I took a photo of a slab backlit to show the Quartz that runs through the stone.

This is a stone I will "ration" out slowly as it is VERY unlikely I will ever get another piece this good.