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Rock Art => Cabochons, Intarsias, Cameos => Topic started by: Quitclayton on October 09, 2017, 08:59:48 AM

Title: Two little yellow cabs out of..um..not sure.
Post by: Quitclayton on October 09, 2017, 08:59:48 AM
I polished up these two cabs the other day...not really sure what they may be but they have a nice color mix and a much deeper shine than the pic shows.

My mother brought me a 5 pound plastic container of "decorative stones" saying that they had a lot of pretty colors and thought they may look good polished up. So I picked out these two first and gave them a try. Odd thing is, all the stones have a was coating on them...probably to keep them from being noisy or making dust I guess. Anyhow, to my surprise these polished up nicely. I'm anxious to see what the other colors turn out to be.

As for now, I believe I will call these "Yellow Walmart-ium" until a more precise name can be determined.

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Title: Re: Two little yellow cabs out of..um..not sure.
Post by: peruano on October 09, 2017, 11:12:35 AM
Soaking rocks in wax is an old world technique for enhancing shine.  You often can smell a lard or oil smell in such situations. 
Title: Re: Two little yellow cabs out of..um..not sure.
Post by: Quitclayton on October 09, 2017, 12:10:18 PM
Interesting...I had no idea that was done. I checked these out for any smells and they have none, so whoever did them must have used some decent wax at least.

The container says made in China, so that's all I've got to go on. The was did make them much more lustrous than they most likely would have appeared had they just been natural, as they are not polished or tumbled at all. I melted the was off a few to check.
Title: Re: Two little yellow cabs out of..um..not sure.
Post by: southerly on October 13, 2017, 07:49:18 PM
Those stones both look like prehnite.

The bags of landscaping stones are often rolled in a varnish or epoxy to make them shiny after a rough tumble in a cement mixer.

David