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[gunsil]

 Hi all, I'm new here and joined to find answers about stones I am not really familiar with working. I do have a fairly well equipped workshop. My question today is regarding turquoise, specifically Campitos turquoise. I recently purchased some from an ebay seller who I have bought a lot of great agate and jasper rough from, but this campitos turquoise seems too soft to work. Is most campitos like that? I really only like to work with untreated stones, and I know that most American turquoise these days is dyed and/or stabilizes and I do not wish to work with such materials. Sleeping beauty has gone up so high in the last couple of years it is almost prohibitive to work (at least for me) and it is the finest natural American turquoise I have used. There doesn't seem to be any of the good hard beautiful Tibetan or Persian turquoise on the market any more, or does anybody know a source for this material? All of the Chinese material I have seen has been treated so I shy away from that.
  I actually like chrysocolla better for that shade of blue, but my cousin has requested a turquoise piece and I am having a hard time finding the raw material. I need to be able to cut a 20x15x6mm cab, so small stuff doesn't work for me here. Any helpful replies are appreciated.

[jerrysg]

I have a couple of suggestions from personal experience.

One, contact Mike at High-Lonesome-Turquoise on ebay (http://stores.ebay.com/High-Lonesome-Turquoise). I know Mike personally and he has a reputation for being one of the most knowledgeable Turquoise experts here in the Tucson area. I know that he does NOT deal in treated Turquoise.  He might be a little pricey but he has Turquoise from all the major mines. What you see on his eBay site are finished cabs but I know he has a lot of rough and should have what you need.

The other suggestion (but seeing that you are in NY might be a tad difficult) is to plan to do the mine tour at Royston Turquoise ( http://roystonturquoise.com/index.htm ) in Tonapah, NV.  We did that in 2012 and came away with a good quantity of quality Turquoise.  The ownership of the mine seems to have changed since then but they still offer the tours.  You can't go down in the pit where the excavator is but working the dumps above the pit is still good.  At the time we were there, the owner said that they probably leave about 25% of the Turquoise on the dump.

These two photos show some of the Turquoise that we collected.  The plastic box obviously has stuff other than Turquoise and the glass topped box has some finished and some rough.  This is only part of what we collected in a few hours at the Royston mine.

Jerry

[Amethyst Rose]

The problem I have found with Campitos is that over 99% of the material is too soft to cut without stabilization.  I have several pounds of stabilized materials I got from one of the guys who was mining it several years ago.  He had me try to cut some of the rough but I never found a single piece that would polish out of over 100 pounds of rough.  I have seen pictures of some recent material that the sellers are claiming is Campitos and that it is hard enough to cut but I have not tried any of this newer material.

Good Luck

Bob Johannes
The Amethyst Rose

[PhilNM]

Natural Campitos turquoise. Not mine, from Ryan Czarnecki's fb page.

[Orrum]

Lots of super glue, prayer, sacrifice 17 beautiful blonde virgins.  Might work who knows???

[finegemdesigns]

I used to be anti-stabilize also but not anymore. I mainly buy material that is called "stabilized for hardness only." This means you get a gem that has all the original colors and patterns but is solid and takes a good polish. Colbaughs is known for their process and you can get amazing rough from mines like Kingman that produce awesome cabs. Note that there are now advanced treatments like silica vapor infusion that produce gems that can't be detected as treated even by labs. This is what is being sold on the TV jewelry channels as "real turquoise." Specifically Sleeping Beauty turquoise. I made a video which I posted before but if you didn't see the link here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA4F8hS_Fhg

The point is well over 95% of all turquoise is stabilized or treated and it's not a problem as long as it is disclosed. The TV people and their lawyers are clever to hide their treatments in carefully constructed verbal scripts that are "technically not illegal." But if you go to their website the treatments are there in small print.

As far as what I've cut lately that is natural the Cripple Creek turquoise is hard enough to work and sell IMO.

[jerrysg]

Nothing that you see in my pictures has been treated in any way.  Some of it has been backed (with J B Weld) but it has all been in our possession since we removed it from the mine. There are some very powdery pieces that we may try with some super glue, but haven't done any of them yet.

[finegemdesigns]

I have a couple of suggestions from personal experience.

One, contact Mike at High-Lonesome-Turquoise on ebay (http://stores.ebay.com/High-Lonesome-Turquoise). I know Mike personally and he has a reputation for being one of the most knowledgeable Turquoise experts here in the Tucson area. I know that he does NOT deal in treated Turquoise. 

Really? Then what is this cab?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HLT-KINGMAN-SPIDERWEBBED-TURQUOISE-CABOCHON-85-5-ct-CAB-/261921147418?hash=item3cfbb78a1a

[jerrysg]

OK you got me.  I haven't checked all of his listings. But notice that he is very clear about what is being offered.

[olgguy]

Is that what the HLT means, "treated" ?

[vitzitziltecpatl]

HLT is for High Lonesome Turquoise.