World of the Rockhound; 11

In this this country there are a number of associations of people with interest in working in Europe. The second largest craft hobby in America today is said to be rock counting with all of its branches of interest. Some of which are Jim cutting making jewelry and the collection of gemstones rocks rolls and fossils. This universal hobby has grown to astonishing proportions in the last 25 years and shows signs of even more rapid growth as the need develops for more people to pursue more leisure time activities due to the fact that they are working fewer hours have more days off and get more vacation time. Rocks and minerals of specimens are bitstream important to the raw count. Most people do not realize the important role. In minerals play in everyday living. For

example fluorite used in toothpaste and clothing. This series of programs is designed to give an overall picture of the rockhound offer encouragement to the newcomer in this hobby and present information of general interest to everyone. All of this will be examined as we explore the world of the Rockhouse. Today's programme is entitled a many faceted subject. The narrator is Len Koch a diamond cut in the brilliant style has a total of 58 facets the lapidary aspect of rock hounding which includes gem collecting gem cutting and jewelry making has an unlimited number of facets depending on one's interpretation of the term. The possibility of changing a rough stone into something beautiful and useful makes lapidary work a most intriguing and popular phase of the rock and hobby to learn more of this many faceted subject. We talk with several individuals who do this

work both professionally and as amateurs. According to Mr M A U P Jones owner of Jones jam shop in Brentwood Tennessee the word lapidary has two meanings and includes a wide variety of interests and with the word lapidary has at least two meanings. One is a person who. Works with stones and any stone that may be made into works of pieces by a professional adornment. It also means a place where such work is done in the shop or studio. I walk about lap at various lapidary either way is quite probably involved everything from cutting the raw material to rough stone just as they are taken from the ground. Into. So I am one of the cutting down into small pieces. The grinding and polishing and mounting of the stone. It's the entire process of

converting a piece of GM material. Well anything that can be considered as an ornamental stone metal into a usable. Piece of Work. I did that include making the little my acting's that you put these things in a ring. Cap that you put. A stone I finished down and I think that in recent years it has been extended to include metal work although originally. It only meant the work with the Stones. Isn't it sort of a catch all. Well that includes a lot of things the way you interpret it. Yes that's quite true it now is a broad term and it doesn't have such a limited meaning as we used to think of it. The term jam cutting may be interpreted in various ways also. There's a difference between jam cutting as applied to a diamond and jam cutting where other jam stones are involved.

Diamond cutting as such does not include the fastening operation in connection with them and the cutting is everything except the fasting that is it's the cleaning of the Stones preform of the stone and to some extent rough granting but the fatted thing is referred to as polishing. You know now I'm trade I believe I'll break and that with most of us don't they. What cutting is a cover no. Time that includes everything from sewing the rough rock to completing a stone right that might be mounted they actually include sawing grinding and polishing for whatever shape it may be made into. We asked Mr. Jones if many amateur lapidary enthusiasts cut diamonds. No I would say that the amateur Diamond doing diamond cutting in this country could be counted on your two hands but far more reasons and one forced

the expense of the raw material of good quality diamond is quite expensive even in the rough state. And secondly it is such a specialized art that in the commercial. Cutting plants the work is divided up and the whole process is not done by one man. For an amateur take up damning cutting he would have to have. Many years to work at it. Plus almost unlimited means to provide the raw material necessary to cut stones other than diamonds. Generally can be classified into three categories. The smooth don't like kava Shon cuts to the sparkling faceted jam and the baroque which is a smooth stone with an irregular shape. In general there are three types of stones. From their shapes. A. Cat which is sin is a symmetrical stone whether it be round or square octagon or

whatnot as long as it is a symmetrical stone. And has smooth surfaces curved surfaces that is. That distinguishes the kava shining from a fast is which has many plane services you know. Brilliant cut diamond of a modern cut. You have 58 small plane surfaces of crying and various shapes. Forming the outside of the stone and any stone that has these plain stretches regardless of the number of foot do they facets don't. In addition to these two types are also broken which are. Asymmetrical or not regular are symmetrical in form and they can be any shape or any size not that it broke them I didn't attach. The plastic of the great book volume of stone dock tumble polished stone because that material is cut and broken down in small pieces I put in a tumbler and come out whatever say shape and

size they may and the cab sounds again on the polishing your granny or in a town where I know you're going to have a shot it may be. Shaped and rough ground by hand then put it down with a polishing but at root have a shot made from start to finish. With these three types of cut stones in mind as explained by Mayhew JONES We talked with some amateurs who spend many hours of leisure time working with their diamonds their grinding wheels polishing fastening machines and their tumblers. Mr. watt amps and spends eight to ten hours a week transforming rest stones into cab Ashanti for pins bracelets and other pieces of jewelry. It's always a challenge to take a rough. Cut it open and. See what kind. Of pattern and then go from there on. Polishing their own and mounting you know. Piece of jewelry. And you never know what you're going to come up with

and. I want to. The most beautiful stones are found right in your backyard so to speak. You don't have to come from India or South America. Not a. Beautiful euro can be made from stone in a backyard. I mean just ordinary stuff. Yes like a flat rock from the creek beds in the neighborhood are. Pieces of Quartz. Think of that. Why can't your why do you knock out or say you when so far I have made. Pendant or necklace something like necklace pendant and cufflinks and. Bracelets. Thanks for that. How long have you been doing this. About six months but this is a display that so intended to show the steps. It is part of the steps

that go that you go through from a rough stone to a finished piece of jewelry. And now across the top you notice that there are seven. Rough stones and beneath each stone is a slab. Let's cut from that stone on a dime and so. And just beneath a slab is a finished piece of jewelry. With a stone mounted if it had been shaped and polished on the various machines and so on the rough grounding wheel grinding wheel and the sending process which rough sanding. And fine sanding and of course the final polish on I noticed the ref's live it UK. Well each one. Well it goes from say you an inch and a half to maybe three inches. The different ones there. How do you get it just the size for the pendant

or the. Insert in the bracelet that you're going to write. Well. Most likely you would. You sad in advance what you're going to make. And. If you have such a slam. You draw a pattern on the fly up with a special pencil or so it's a metallic pencil that would mark from Washoe when you when you working it on your grinding wheels and you sending drum. And if you have drawn your pattern then you begin to take out sad. Rock 0 0 2 you get it down is near the shoe and the shape that you want is possible. So how do you get that to cut it with a saw to make it almost bestial. And where you cut as much as you can with this so because it's faster and easier that way. But then if you get down within a fraction of a year your pattern mark

then you have to take it off and grind it down very carefully on your wheels because these things are. Made in millimeter sadness and. You can't you can't do it to face you cut it under saddle so you take it down. As far as you can on you so that's the quickest and easiest way to get. It just to pattern shape. But then for the final shaping you have to go to your granny who you use a rock grinding wheel for face removal. And it's it's left and then you put it on a wheel to get that smooth age on it. And then for the shape it don't shape you mount it on a what is called up stick you mount your. Your stone shaped stone. On this stick with way way. Specially to whack a specially prepared for this

work. And. Then you. Begin to put shape on it on top. Of this. By working on the first on and on and on the standing. Does it take to go on that red rock that you got up there on the tap today. Takes me about two hours if I don't have it bad luck if I don't ship something or if you have good luck it takes me about two hours when you began to expect a certain amount of bad luck. Yes that's been my experience and in the stoneage you work with stone it's not of the same hardness and some of it is very brittle and if you're not careful you can chip it when you get it down to a. Point. Mr Sims display of mounted camera shot is cut from the rough rock

contained mahogany and black obsidian Ohio Flea and also Flint from the creek bed. Courts found at a golf course and a green orange town called AM is a night for a description of the fastening operation we spoke with Chief Master Sergeant Robert McGowan. The most common cut fast cut 30 round brilliant which is like a diamond ring. And the Marquis and several of the other. Rectangular styles. Such as the octagon. Which is called. An emerald cut. Or your cushion cut which is rectangular in a square cut they have a french cut. And you will see in various jewels you'll see the oval and the pears on the end of the. But the average damager sticks to the round a rectangular cut rather than the oval because overs are quite difficult to do. Your lap that you work with is flat

circular. And you preform your your stone by sawing it usually to the shape you are grinding it down your pre-formed shape then you mount it on a dot which is a cylinder of metal is like a metal stick in a rod. You put this in your machine. And lock it and then you start back sitting at that point. You cut the table or the top of the stone usually first then you cut the angles around the table which is called a crown. And there you have eight main facets 16s to twist your neck to the top of the table and you have 16 girdle fastened. On that. The lower half of the stone which is called the pavilion and does all the reflecting of the light that comes through the top. Its. Faceted on 24 facets 8 mains and 16. These are the mirrors of your stone. The other surfaces on the top don't refer. To light but they reflect it. They bend the Rays entering which go

to the bottom half of the stone are reflected back and out. And. If your angles are proper for the type of jams. And varies by the by the gemstone then you get a very brilliant. Cut a very brilliant appearance from the stone. Sergeant gallon does lapidary work at the craft hobby shop at Stewart Air Force Base. This you miss is Paul Crawford prefer to make the Baroque style stones in their tender. These are finished with gold camps and are displayed hanging from a gilded twig which is set in a calcite basin which gives the overall appearance of a jam tree. We were just thinking of some novel idea of displaying some polished stones and my husband found the shapely little winged Bryant and he spray painted it lightly with go and we hung these little colored stones all over it and really I think that the purpose of. This but I wanted to you could hope to catch the ad

but we were trying to show that there are a lot of colorful stones to be found in Tennessee. Timothy's not really noted as a collecting area but we would like to dispute it to a degree and I am that there are many colorful stones in Tennessee. How many stones do you have on it do you know if Mr. Crawford here do you know how many stones you have on your little go tree in there in the display. Well it's all corked rot is filling up. I get Jasper. The entire tree is made up. The Orks family of Crystal's script Christman course actually. How many little individual pieces do yeah. Have you any idea how much the river hog and I know a little under 100 I believe. I'm not sure I didn't catch them we just how long pieces on the tray until we ran I was space and ran out of a better rocks we had a Grand Avenue when we think.

It means having to be doing 75 in a hundred I guess. And they all have the little caps on caps. Now did one of you put the caps on week after week time of the man kept him using caps so we batted the caps and use a Popsie glue which is the only satisfactory glue we found two blue polished domes the stones are so slick that ordination. What kind of a base do you have this on for display purposes to make it best band out at a county by county. Cave Onyx. Actually most people call it the cave Onyx it's a plough type calcite banded. We found that in White County Tennessee. I had the wooden stacking into the castle. How did you get to St.. I drilled a hole in the stone said to Tracey Emin used Elmer's glue. That's. When I discovered to have about them. Underneath the veil of it that you have thoughts on the veil of it.

We placed black velvet under it and the ram that we put some of the rough stones from. Which these. Probably stones came from the rough basic material and then some pieces of jewelry that we made from some of the polished up stones stones that are hanging on the tree is a sign that you put on a charm bracelet that sort of thing. Those are baroque stone and irregularly shaped because all I have is shaping with a hammer come in pieces and come out they shape will be nearly the same when they're finished as when they go into the town they're up but. They are very irregular we just select the ones that will a cap will fit really. And that kept them there for the rest we give to kids or whoever. Most of these phones are not usable after we break. You know they're not suitable for jewelry but

they are not little stones to carry in your pocket for worry stones or if they get stoned for whatever work you like to do something to rub your fingernails as mentioned by Mr. Paul Crawford some of the smooth stones can be used as worry or fidgets downs. However the individual who stays busy with his life at every work will have very little time for worrying. Since most minerals can be polished or cut in some manner the rock around will keep busy experimenting with many of these. Although he may not be too successful with it they are low on the moz scale which indicates the hardness of a mineral with talc being number one and the harvest of minerals the diamond being Number 10. Where does one learn this lapidary art instruction books are available for self teaching classes for teenagers are held in many high schools. Also this is an increasingly popular subject in adult evening classes. The hobbyist who decides to make life at Area work his profession wants to

attain the highest degree of excellence in the lapidary art will wish to know more about the general logical association of Great Britain or its counterpart the German logical Institute of America. As explained by Mr. Mayhew Jones and his Jan shop in this this country there are a number of associations of people with interest in working on GM materials into Europe. There are two large national or international organizations. So having these hobbyists and professionals. The general logical association of Great Britain is the oldest of these service organizations and they have membership in every country in the world. They conduct courses by correspondence as well as in their own shops in London. Graduates of their course through satisfactory complete

examination. Term fellows demagogic Association and may use the issues if he. Following their names on any matters pertaining to work. Now tell me what do they study in the course what would one study if he wanted to be to have this degree of FTA. The course is very comprehensive. They cover it to some extent the background material geology which is the broad term of the formation of the earth. Peter ology which pertains only to the rock portions of the earth and neurology which pertains to pure compounds and undiminished comes jet Jemma gene which is the study and work with minimal that have some value as gem materials. These courses presume

some knowledge of general chemistry and physics. Certainly as much as one would have in high school the first two years of college and they come under Jim ology the physical characters are physical characteristics of the word character is a British term object materials hardness cleavage specific gravity optical properties including color transparency refraction reflection and refraction. Last opalescent is just coincidence asterism and all have a recognised properties which vary from one stone to another. That the course is open to anyone on the recommendation of a member all fellow of the GEMA logic Association. And all material he sent for that for the study. Except of course simple instruments and these can usually be rented a borrowed from local

universities or colleges when necessary and if not available from that source that the associations will forward for an issue with the necessary instruments on a loan basis. When I think of instruments I'm referring more to instruments for identification positive identification of gemstone such as microscope Dicus go refractometer and those things which are really just laboratory equipment for examination of stone. One of the course not said oh it wants Corps to stand in and stall months just like many other service truck sponsor courses each. Lesson. Includes examination questions which are answered and sent back it's an open book examination but they are carefully examined and any differences they may have as to what the answer should have been caught your attention and sometimes you're required to write the answers for a given

portion of the course. If a person were interested where would he write to find if you wanted. First you have to be recommended back here with me and then how would you know. Then they would ask for references if a question it was interested in obtaining one of these courses. They would simply write to either the general watch console station in Great Britain if they want that course or up to the. Generalized claims to America if they want that corps they were saying a necessary application forms which would include of course the SEST if some weapons is and preferably members that knew you and your work with St.. But these courses are basically the same except one is British a minute in this country. That's entirely correct. It's possible at least my belief that the British course goes deeply into the. Related subjects that the

American course that American course sticks more strictly to just the GM business rather than the sideline related subjects. Yeah society. It is much oh I don't know the exact date of this organization but I'm sure it was back in the part of the last century where is the American organization was thought of during the oppression in 1931 was not incorporated in 1940 to these two courses really pertain more to. People in the profession. How do you know that. That isn't how to correct the courses are primarily slanted toward people who make their livelihood from the gym business in some way or other. In fact many of the jurors of this country take the courses so that they are better qualified to discuss their wares with their customers beyond covering the physical and chemical properties of gemstones.

The courses in Gemara G. Provide you with enough knowledge to identify almost any gemstone you might encounter by one of the standard test procedures. There seems to be a common misunderstanding that testing to materials is a simple process of scratching with your pocket knife making a mark on a. Porcelain plate. But didn't that simple possible deprecation of gemstones has not gotten to be quite a complicated and scientific. Endeavor. And requires a number of expensive optical instruments our chemical and physical tests which are not readily available to the ordinary amateur. That was Mr. Nye you Jones who says that he did Roman in the courses offered by the general logical association of Great Britain was the result of a hobby which got a bit out of hand

and which has now become a retirement occupation. This has been a discussion covering many other facets of life that area work at present the most popular form of rock accounting. This has been another in the series of programs exploring the world of the rock. The narrator was Len for. This series is produced by the service of the public library of Nashville and Davidson County in Nashville Tennessee. Next week Mrs. folk will discuss the fascinating aspects of this hobby on a program entitled recreation for servicemen. This is Charles Mitchell. This is in the national educational radio network.