Mineral Mondays #32 - Cutting Slabs

I am going to take a little detour this week and talk about slabs.

Slabs

Slabs are roughly 1/4' slices of material most commonly used for making cabochons. However, sometimes the material is so amazing the slabs are left as is for display or further polished and displayed. They are also used as a way to explore what is inside of a rock rather than breaking it open with a hammer. The Tiffany Stone header image of this post is a good example of cutting to see what is inside. The entire specimen has an orange crust to it and you wouldn't know the interior is made up of fluorite and a yet unidentified, green crystal.

Cutting

Cutting slabs are not as easy as you might think. First of all, you need the appropriate saw. A 7-1/4" wet tile saw will allow you to cut slabs only about 2 3/8" tall. This is fine for more expensive type material, like my bacon opal or tiffany stone. For more common material like agates, a larger saw, 10" + is needed so you can cut bigger slabs. Usually, people won't buy 2.5" slabs of common material so you need to move up into the 3" + range.

Since playing around with 10" saws is dangerous​ there is a manufacturer named Lortone that makes enclosed, self-driving​ saws and they aren't cheap. A 12" rig costs about $1,500. The one my old rock club had, an 18", costs $3,350. The larger saw also cuts slow. Cutting time is about 10 minutes depending on the size of the material, but the cuts are very clean. These larger saws also use mineral oil instead of water as a coolant/lubricant. 

Source

The other week I ordered a small tile saw online and it finally came in last week.​It's a great saw for doing the work I am doing, smaller slabs of rare, expensive material.

I immediately got to work cutting material. Unfortunately, I already wore out the blade. That's the other thing, agates are hard and can burn up your diamond blades pretty quickly. They are between 6.5-7 on the Mohs scale, equal to the hardest porcelain tile. This is about 1/3 of what I cut.

One last note, tile saws are loud and throw off shards of the material cutting. I always use safety glasses and earplugs​. As careful and experienced as I am,​ I've had saws shoot pieces of rock into my arm and have had the saw bite the rocks throwing them and my hand away. No matter how tough you think you are, the saw is tougher. Always, always play it safe. It's no fun cutting your fingers off, I know.

Next Week, Back to Gem-O-Rama!

Thanks for reading!

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