[Jewelry making - Article 00026] - Re: [Orchid] Chinese Pietersite

[Douglas Turet]

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Just a quick note to Thomas and Dave:

    Before you cut into your Pietersite slabs (or rough), please be sure
    to both don a dual-caister respirator and add some sort of
    surfactant (i.e. soap) to your cabbing unit's coolant reservoir! As
    beautiful as Pietersite may be, it can also be pretty nasty stuff to
    handle. For those not yet aware of it, Pietersite is a brecciated
    Tigereye (a.k.a. Crocidolite; a.k.a. a partial to complete,
    pseudomorphic replacement of quartz after asbestos) which, as even a
    cursory glance will tell you, is still fibrous in nature. About
    thirty years ago (geez- can it really be that long?), while my
    family and I were visiting his neck of the woods, Alan Roup gave me
    a chunk of the stuff to try cabbing. Although most of it was fairly
    solid, there were several pockets of pure, unadulterated "rock wool"
    that had to be worked around, and, if I hadn't been wearing a decent
    mask...? So, like most other "beauties", just beware that there's a
    potential for a "beast", when cutting this stuff, okay? (Oh, and
    while you're at it, be sure to soak your slabs in a few washes of
    alcohol or detergeant, if you've sawn them with oil as the
    cooling/blade-wetting agent... The minute spaces between the fibers
    sometimes practice a bit of capillary action, which can leave you
    (as it did me) with some unusually fragrant finished cabs.  {:o) 

Hope I've helped!

All the best,
Doug
Doug Turet, GJ
Lapidary Artist, Designer & Goldsmith
Turet Design
P.O. Box 162
Arlington, MA 02476
Tel. (617) 325-5328
eFax (928) 222-0815
anotherbrightidea AT hotmail.com


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