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#1
05-30-2018, 01:08 PM
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Looking for slices of spiderweb turquoise
Hi all,
I am looking for slices of real (not recon) spiderweb turquoise for fingerboard inlay. I thought one of you wonderful luthiers (or rock aficionados) might be able to suggest a good source for me. I'd be most appreciative. There are lots of turquoise shops on the internet, but I don't know much about stone - so I don't know who is good to work with, who will cut slices instead of just offering cabuchons, what is a fair price, etc. Thanks, Jamie 
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#2
05-30-2018, 05:27 PM
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FWIW Jamie, I would suggest you use recon stone. I’ve worked with real stone and it’s a pain to use without lapidary equipment. You can’t tell the difference visually between real and recon and your luthier will thank you because he or she can work recon with conventional tools. There is also the risk of overheating inlayed stone, when leveling it, and it often times cracks due to overheating it with sanders or grinders without water cooling.
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#4
05-31-2018, 01:07 AM
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Recon stone sheets are available at Rothko and Frost:
https://www.rothkoandfrost.com/materials-c25/stone-t298
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#6
05-31-2018, 05:40 PM
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Quote:
__________________
Kinnaird Guitars
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#7
05-31-2018, 07:28 PM
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Quote:
 Most of the stone work I've done so far has been with bits I've found on the ground. Some very hard, some soft and crumbly. Soft ones can be sliced up with a jeweler's saw, although it's hard to cut straight and avoid breaking the stone. Hard ones need a diamond saw, followed by grinding on my trusty extra-extra-coarse Dia-Sharp. Or grind the whole way if the piece is thin to begin with. I don't know of anyone selling thin slices of stone. I got a good slab of lapis from treasuregems14 on ebay a few years ago, but it was much too thick to use straight away (I sliced it in half). And all their turquoise is in cabochon form, which means a lot of waste for inlay. But there seem to be very few turquoise slab sellers, and none with good spiderwebbing. As for inlay techniques, circles are fairly easy to shape by hand on a diamond stone. More complex shapes can be done using diamond router bits (super cheap on ebay). Glue the stone to a piece of wood to hold onto it and keep it from breaking, and then sand the wood off when you're done. After inlaying into a radiused fingerboard, level with the diamond stone, sand with wet/dry paper, and polish with micromesh.
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