Lapidaryforum.net
Let's Rock => Rock Talk => Topic started by: Phishisgroovin on September 01, 2017, 08:59:55 PM
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WHY?
Why is it so stupid expensive? :dontknow:
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Because it only comes from one mine in the Dominican Republic and they have the corner on the market. They can charge whatever they like and people will pay for it.
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Also beca use it is difficult to cab! Understatement thete for sure. It crumbles on me at the polish stage!
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I see people backing it with jade because it is so crumbly.
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Buyers set the price... Rare and single source are part of the equation. Value is determined by what people are willing to pay. Larimar is absolutely stunning and it's colors and patterns are unique. The market sets the price. Compare Larimar prices to that of Diamonds. How about a string of Jadeite beads that sold for $17 million. Yep, they were beautiful and if I had crazy money.......
I have seen people with new discovery / single source jaspers try and convince others that this creates value. Well, if it ain't pretty it ain't pretty. If it is pretty sometimes it just is not affordable in my budget....
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there is a second source for larimar. it's never been mined. read it on a web site few years ago. been trying to find the source since. otherwise, the dominican has the monopoly on it.
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my wife has a rectangle cab on a silver ring.
I am sure i can cab some more and rather than straight polishing with a few stages, polishing it like i do fire agates with many many stages of grits to 50,000 diamond.
But i cant afford to get any lol
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I was told by a jeweler when I was in Puerto Rico(right across the water from DR) two years ago that there was a river in DR where you could collect laramar on the bottom. He said it isnt near as common or easy to find as it once was but it is still there. He told me when he was a boy his family went over there and took a river canoe trip and he was able to fill his pockets. He tried again more recently and only found a single small rough stone he kept in his office. He also brought us beer and chatted with us for awhile. Hindsight is 20/20 he lamented. He had a pretty wide selection of laramar jewelry in the shop but none that he made himself.
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A very nice piece was found on a Whidbey island beach a few years ago.You never know.
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I never tried Larimar before. I doubt I will ever try again. Most of the stuff is fractured, splintered, so soft you could use it for talcum powder. I purchased a piece from a friend. Yes, you can doublet it with Jade, or other very hard material, but when the fracture permeates from top to bottom, well??.. Then the old standby. Stabilizing? I live in AZ, and I do stabilize Stichtite, because it is worth the effort. You can buy stabilized turquoise anywhere in this state. This Larimar stuff? I am not so sure. Gentlemen, if talcum could be polished like a diamond, we would all give it a shot. I live in an area where pure Onyx in the Tonto Nat. Forest-- is all over the ground. Send you some if you pay the postage. Also, red jasper. Let me know. We have a kind of "honey" type." Onyx is beautiful, but every so often the stuff blows up. Larimar's percentage of blow up is much higher. I thought Stichtite was a PIA, but it is so much more beautiful, to me, anyway. Whidbey Island, in the Puget Sound? Lots of agates, but Larimar? Ok, I am always amazed where stones show up. Makes this endeavor so interesting. Thanks for listening.
Mike
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The mineral name is pectolite - larimar is a marketing name for blue-green pectolite from the DR. Pectolite is found worldwide, though it is usually a light gray color. I've wondered whether there isn't some being dyed with copper sulphate by now, which would explain the amount of it being sold by Asian cutters these days. The old stuff was hard enough, but tended to chip/crack at edges and sometimes undercut a bit. You also want to keep heat away from it - scorches and affects the color, so unmount before using a torch on the setting. I knew about green pectolite from Alaska, but not about a find in Washington - that's interesting.
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I don't bother with it anymore for the same reasons listed above. Also I don't work much with charoite for similar reasons.
Life is too short to waste time with these stupid rocks.
:confused3: :BangHead: :sad11:
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It’s never crumbled on me. I’ve had good luck with what I’ve done (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180103/dcf3a60196093b804cd33105c86917ef.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I've noticed that Larimar is very susceptible to vibrational shock, so I find it does particularly poorly on diamond metal grinders. One trick I've found for Larimar is as soon as possible just get to a large grit expandable drum grinder. Also, don't try and dome it very much, it's pretty easy to have a fairly flat top and still get a good finish. I really like Larimar for the very nice polish it takes.
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I feel like a fool. A couple of years ago I could of bought allot (20 kilos) for cheap direct from DR but didn't really have a market here in Brazil.
I'm sure it was snatched up. 😐
Just out of curiosity what are people paying for it?
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Last time I purchased a slab it was $1.00 a gram for the premium rock
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I was in Tuscon this week end, and every show I went there was Larimar. It seems to be one of the more popular stones this year. The quality of the stuff really crossed the spectrum, from dull and chalky to the really colorful. Everyone was asking the high $ / gram bit. All the way from rough to finished stones. After my experience trying to baby this stone to a polish, I looked, but did not touch. Did not want the stuff to break in my fingers. The finished jewelry, polished and set, looked fine. My question is that unless the owner treats his/her piece with kid gloves with absolutely no jewel box drop, I wonder how popular this stone will be down the road. Paying for a very nice cab of L and having it break, is not going to be a plus for this, should I call it stone?
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I did one for my wife, set in silver. She’s were it
A lot. It’s here favorite piece. It’s been about five years
I have bought a few slabs and the piece I did for my wife
Didn’t have any trouble cabbing it. I did a little research
And I bought quality rock
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I imagine there are L stones out there with higher silicate content than the average. You were pleased with your stone and the results, and your wife is very happy with her jewelry piece. I am glad for you. I just wish my experience could have been similar. On the surface, the quality Larimar is just really beautiful. The fracturing and the crumbling on the piece I had, although I began with a 600 g. S/C belt, (on a soft drum) with plenty of water did not help much for me. I believe I had an internally flawed piece of stone. Like I said, the stone is the rage at commercial rock shows, and mostly represented by dealers from India. Did not see any D/R - Larimar dealers at Tuscon, so I could talk to them about proper treatment and what they did to bring their stones to shape and polish. I did meet an Ethiopian dealer of Welo Opal at the show. The gentleman was very knowledgeable and helped me to select a couple of really nice stones at a very reasonable price.
I also came away with some very nice boulder opal rough, from an Australian miner selling these stones. Excellent advice about how to cut it, sand, polish, etc. It is a very unusual stone, and I have only had one experience, which came to be a disappointment. After Mr. Cooper's tutorial about proper cutting, sanding and polishing that I got from him, I am anxious to try this again. The name of the mine is Broken River Mining, Queensland, Aus. (Broken River Mining.com) and his wife, Sue Cooper who remained in Australia- supervising mining ( they do not strip it or leave eye sore gouges in the terrain.) Her husband whose first name has left me, gave me encouragement to keep trying as he said that everyone working with this particular type of opal has has a very steep learning curve. I wish there could have been a D/R rep about L. present. Maybe there was. I was not actively looking for L, so that may be the reason?