introduction and question about rose quartz

["John Klassen" <jaklassen2001@zzzzzzzzzzzz>]

About 10 years ago I bought a 125lb chunk of rose quartz when I lived in
NY.
At the time I didn't have the proper tools to cut it, and found that all it
did was fracture and create sparks. Since then, I have seen lots of little
orbs  and chinese sculptures in rose quartz. I assume it can probably only
be
ground  with power tools suitable for granite, and not carved with chisels.

Does anyone have experience with rose quartz? Is this a stone that is worth
shipping and trying again (with better tools) or would it be better to
forget
about it?

Tom Kaschak
 Duluth, GA

Hello Tom,

Don't know what kind of final finish you're looking for on that piece of
rose quartz.  There has been some articles in Lapidary Journal Magazine
about cutting and polishing big pieces of quartz.  Late 90's to about 2002.
I looked but couldn't find the specific issues I was thinking of.

If you are looking for a fine finish that's going to take some patience.

Quartz fractures easily and doesn't react well to heat or shock.  When
cutting you have to try to keep the stone at an even temperature or it's
going to be a mess of fractures.  Those sparks you wrote about are bad news.
Sorry.  Use lot's of water and diamond blades for cutting.  No chisels.
Silicon Carbide wheels can be used for shaping and grinding, again with lots
of water.  Make sure they are dressed well so that they don't chatter
against the stone.

Polishing can be done with Silicon Carbide sandpaper up to 1500 and then
Cerium Oxide on a hard felt buff.  That's as far as I've taken it anyways.

Really try to keep the stone at an even temperature. If you get it hot,
don't quench it, just let it cool down and cross your fingers.  I've had a
small carnelian carving almost finished and then messed it up at the last
stages.  A little bit of extra heat and the surface cracked. Wasn't paying
close enough attention.

 I have a couple of good sized chunks of Rose Quartz waiting for me to have
time but I have cut and polished amethyst,  tigers eye, various agates,
aventurine and clear rock crystal with good results.  These are all
different forms of quartz.

As for the sphere cutting,  there is a great little article in the March
1998 issue of Rock & Gem Magazine about a man named Glen Spencer a master
sphere cutter.  I looked it up to make sure of the issue date.

FAG Bearings  has a sort of corporate book about the history of ball bearing
manufacturing and in this book is a picture of an ancient wooden water
powered stone ball cutter.  That book might be in your local library.
People could cut spheres back then with a stream and some wood.  Talk about
ingenuity.

Good Luck.

John A Klassen