To slab or not to slab?

Prospecting Australia

Help Support Prospecting Australia:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 15, 2013
Messages
1,082
Reaction score
984
Location
Nowra, south coast NSW
Cut the ends off of a few of my larger bits of jasper today. I had planned on trying to get a few slabs of each to cab with. The green piece seems fine but the other two show a fair bit of fracturing. Any thoughts on if it would be worth trying to slab, or if I am wasting my time?





 
I see your concerns. From experience, if a crack makes it the whole way through, its got big chances to falling apart as you saw. Depending on its size, these pieces may still be cab worthy.

Top and bottom rocks in photos may have a chance of holding shape, or in the bottom photo, it even looks like the crack may be fading off giving you a chance for a clean slab. What sort of saw? 6" or large?
 
I will be getting them cut on the larger saws at the club. Had a few smaller pieces that I tried to get slabbed fall to pieces. I don't mind if the slab getting cut falls apart a bit, but didn't want the whole rock to fall apart.
Will give it a go and see what happens.
 
Oh right. I've had a whole rock fall in two once bfore mate. Still same answer though, inspect the rock for cracks that go all the way through but what you've shown should hold. Jasper having such a high silica content should have a strong hold of some sort. I recon they will cut :)
 
From the photos it looks like it can go either way - post up the results when you can,
 
G'day AR did not get to slab them today as slab saw and the cutter was busy, but did get a couple of my bigger bits of petrified wood opened up. 8.( They were a black/grey on the inside and nothing special, but at least that explains what the grey looking jasper was in the same area. Will post some pics later.

I paid about $2.00 for the ends off the jasper and $1.00 for the two bits of petrified wood. I believe slabbing is something like 20c for 12 inch square, or something like that.
 
Not all is bad mate. I've cut open a bit of petrified and sometimes its a lot more dull than what's yours looks like and just plain greyish black. I recon it looks cool and almost like blue tigerseye fibres :)

Cheers for the prices.

Machines are always busy. Make sure you get your turn. I havnt had the chance to cut or cab at the club for months..
 
Managed to get all 3 bits of jasper slabbed today. They were a bit thicker than I was thinking of, but turned out ok. Should be able to get a few nice stones out of them.
The photos do not do them much justice.






 

Latest posts

Top