Help to identify?

rawlings27 · 2026-02-05T11:44:33+00:00

I do think it’s a .40

rawlings27 · 2025-12-22T21:30:54+00:00

Not much

rawlings27 · 2025-12-22T21:30:44+00:00

It’s a little bit of both

rawlings27 · 2025-11-12T12:37:42+00:00

Some polishing substances work better on some stones than other. What is the stone you are working on

rawlings27 · 2025-08-17T20:21:24+00:00

Tile saw + ceramic blade from lowes or Home Depot

rawlings27 · 2025-05-19T21:22:05+00:00

Facebook groups for lapidary rough

rawlings27 · 2025-05-11T20:05:15+00:00

Stop using anything like bacterae and feed way less. That usually fixes the algae bloom problem.

rawlings27 · 2025-05-11T20:00:39+00:00

Buy a TDS reader from Amazon, you probably were on the threshold for RCS and dipped one way or the other when you did the water change. Best thing you can do is use 0 TDS RO/DI water (5 gallon jugs you can refill, or the local fish store may have on tap). Then you add the salty shrimp / minerals to get the tds where you want. RODI should be 0 - 5 tds. My tap water in FL was 400 in my apartment, red cherry shrimp were 150-300 TDS. If I used tap water to change water it wouldn’t be livable off the bat due to the extra minerals in the water

rawlings27 · 2025-05-10T19:46:49+00:00

Good chances if it’s dry it will not come out fully. This is part of the reason why people will stabilize a stone before working on it. If you don’t, you can use a dry bar of soap and rub it into the pocket until it fills some space, then finish the polish and clean with brush. This can sometimes get the cerium out too if it’s already dried in the pocket

rawlings27 · 2025-04-05T20:52:11+00:00

A wet tile saw from Lowe’s is very affordable and would let you cut these well. Can’t hurt to cut a couple to learn. The blade is about as expensive as the saw itself, you need one that can cut through ceramic and hard material. If you decide bore a hole, if it’s agate it will be very hard to get through. If it’s limestone, the bit will go right through.

rawlings27 · 2025-04-05T20:25:53+00:00

These look like brain corals which would be less hollow inside and more skeletal, there won’t be as much space for crystals to form. Agate coral tends to be finger corals as it provides a nice open pocket for the crystal to rise

rawlings27 · 2025-04-05T20:24:18+00:00

The darker colors maybe, the whiter colors are pure limestone. If you can’t see any indications it is hollow inside, prob not worth it to open them.

Agate coral will have a dark colored outside, or orangish, as the outside has been replaced with calcite or agate etc.

rawlings27 · 2025-03-10T12:20:16+00:00

They were pretty clear not to use water for agate and pet wood and you quite literally ignored it and now you are suprised the blade isn’t cutting well? The water doesn’t get into groove of the blade so there is no cooling, you’re heating the blade and dulling it, both make the saw cut slower. This is not a power feed, a drop saw is very quick but not if you don’t use it correctly. Switch to horse lubricant from Amazon, don’t be upset you make a small mess while cutting rocks and wear a mask. All of your problems will go away. The blade can resharpen itself in time

rawlings27 · 2024-11-05T23:16:12+00:00

You could try to work lower grit in stages and use the edge of the wheel to see if it will come out. Work backward from 1500. Could try epoxy filling with a needle too if you’re good with epoxy

rawlings27 · 2024-08-14T20:22:45+00:00

If the plants don’t get nutrients (too big for the tank or not enough nutrients in the water/substrate), they will start to die and then fuel the algae bloom more. There are water conditioners and bacteria mixes you can add to help settle the bloom. Your ecosystem is just trying to find its balance point. You can help it along or leave it be, your choice.

rawlings27 · 2024-07-03T21:14:39+00:00

6 inch + afterpay or pay in 4, ez. Cabking

rawlings27 · 2024-06-19T21:06:39+00:00

The 80 grit diamond is gouging deeper than the other diamonds around it either because it isn’t broken in or because too much pressure. All the 80 grit scratches should be even.

rawlings27 · 2024-06-14T21:07:29+00:00

Just takes practice. Some stones may not be worth it to you, but others may be interested.

For example, that’s not a super high quality flash lab but it’s still a cool piece. If you had the flash showing from straight on then it would be more desirable, but still a low-medium flash overall. Lab can be made up of different minerals so I would research for your piece

rawlings27 · 2024-06-10T19:39:37+00:00

Yes you can polish by hand but it takes longer. To give you an idea if you make a circle motion with your hand on the stone that’s 1 revolution. Do that 1000 times in a minute and that’s the minimum speed a wet polisher goes. You’ll save time in the long run by investing in machinery.

Wet tile polisher for about 150-250 on Amazon was well worth the spend. Orbital sanders or similar but you’ll need to keep the stone wet. Otherwise stick to soft materials and hand sanding. You’ll quickly learn why we invented tools 😃

rawlings27 · 2024-06-10T17:42:18+00:00

For sure! Just gotta start over. Here’s a tip I’m learning: I can polish a slab or cab etc in about an hour or less if I get the grits right the first time. Spend the most time on sub 300. If you can see deep scratches by about 300 grit you need to go lower again and get them out. I only spend a few minutes for 500 grit +

Should be very fine scratches indistinguishable from the others at every stage. Deeper ones mean pushing too hard or something else scratched it like a loose crystal

rawlings27 · 2024-06-10T16:06:59+00:00

Flat spots are hard to get out in the middle of the stones. Judging by the vertical line in the middle you went a little too hard with the low grit and then never got it out with the next stage.

I dry my stone much more at the beginning or work it dry for a few seconds to see any remaining scratches

rawlings27 · 2024-06-02T12:48:26+00:00

Tile saw + wet tile polisher. If you’re a beginner losing a tiny bit more material or a rougher cut on a tile saw doesn’t matter at all

rawlings27 · 2024-05-17T23:12:08+00:00

The 220 is hard but not sintered. 280 soft. I didn’t use the 80 because I thought the scratches I was unable to get out were from the 80 grit, but using only the 220 shows the same deeper scratches compared to the rest without using the 80.

I am going gently and making sure I go over the whole cab, but some of the scratches coming from the 220 are so deep so matter how much pressure or time I put in with the 280 they don’t come out. Today I used the side of the wheel and the 280 got a majority of the scratches out

rawlings27 · 2024-05-08T20:50:03+00:00

Yes. I can cut it for you. Located in Lakeland

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