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Turquoise

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Oct 6, 2008
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Can anyone recommend an honest, reliable source for genuine Turquoise, either powder or stones. I going to do some inlaying in cracks. I'm not interested in any other product. Thanks
 
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I've bought a small number of strands at local bead stores, and when crushed about half turned out to be painted rocks instead of real turquoise. I think you are justified in being cautious. Caveat emptor.
 
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This post has me curious about a couple of things. Those of you that crush your own, how do you crush it without it scattering all over the place. And once you start inlaying it, how do you turn away the bits that are above the surface you want without destroying your tools, even carbide tools? I've have a bag of turquoise labeled "Kingman Turquoise". It has nice color with a little grey mixed in it. But it's like trying to crush glass with bits and shards going everywhere. And equally as hard to turn.
 
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Never used it, but if I wanted to crush something like that a piece of large steal pipe capped on one end and a steel rod, or slightly smaller capped pipe. Use it like a mortar and pestle.

I've seen a video where this guy who makes bangles for women use the steal pipe as you stated to crush turquoise for his inlay in the wood that he uses. I believe they call him "The Bangle Guy"?
 
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I use a hydraulic press and place the turquoise pieces inside a metal can. Sourcing the material directly from the source is your best option. Sourcing materials like this on eBay is risky as you never know what you might end up with.
 

Bill Boehme

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Trying to crush turquoise has been a frustrating experience for me. I have tried using a 1½" diameter plugged steel pipe coupling as the mortar and a capped ¾" pipe nipple as the pestle, but that didn't work very well. Turquoise seems to be about as hard as granite and pieces of turquoise would go flying everywhere. I needed something better but lost interest after spending most of a day busting a small bag of rocks. I would rather just shell out the money for pre crushed turquoise.

Curtis I know what you mean about trying to turn turquoise. I made a platter that had an inlaid ring of turquoise nuggets that were sticking up above the surface. My plan was to turn the turquoise down flush with the surface, but it didn't take me long to discover that it was like turning rocks ... because they are rocks ... very hard rocks. Regular turning tools didn't work and neither did carbide. I was finally able to grind the turquoise down using a masonry saw disk held flat against the platter with the lathe running about 1000 RPM. Even that took a very long time. So I learned a very important lesson ... don't have any pieces of turquoise sticking up above the surface.
 
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For the small amounts that I have crushed I have a piece of 2 1/2" pipe welded to a 1" base. Then I use a solid piece of 2" bar stock the fits inside the pipe and just let it free fall.It pulverizes the rock after a number of drops depending on the size of stones and type.
 

Jim McLain

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I crush my turquoise using a cold chisel upside down. I ground the chisel end flat. I put the turquoise in a 2 inch coupling and pound against a steel plate using a small hammer. I have 2 inch steel rod in a steel cylinder but feel that I can control the crushing better using my method. As expensive as turquoise is you want to try not to ha e too much waste (fine powder).

As far as inlaying the turquoise, I keep it just below the surface and drip the CA over it. I used to sand the CA down with a small flap sander but have started turning it down with a negative rake scraper. You will get a little more chip out this way but do not have to deal with the CA sanding fumes.
 

Bill Boehme

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I crush my turquoise using a cold chisel upside down. I ground the chisel end flat. I put the turquoise in a 2 inch coupling and pound against a steel plate using a small hammer. I have 2 inch steel rod in a steel cylinder but feel that I can control the crushing better using my method. As expensive as turquoise is you want to try not to ha e too much waste (fine powder).

As far as inlaying the turquoise, I keep it just below the surface and drip the CA over it. I used to sand the CA down with a small flap sander but have started turning it down with a negative rake scraper. You will get a little more chip out this way but do not have to deal with the CA sanding fumes.

I probably should have used a small hammer instead of a sledge hammer. The turquoise that I had was low quality with a lot of it being gray rock. I had to do a lot of sorting after crushing it into smaller pieces. The turquoise does look nice when you slice through it and then polish the surface, but it just isn't worth the huge amount of work.

I don't like CA for inlaying because it is so brittle and like you said, it tends to chip out too easily. I like using Inlace because it turns very nicely and be polished to a glass smooth finish.
 
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An older professional turner in our area explained his method at our club a few years ago.
1. Spend the winter in Arizona attending flea markets where strands of turquoise chips are plentiful and cheap.
2. Cut your groove and lay the whole strand in the groove (sliding the string out) I believe he said it takes about 3 typical strands for a 14" salad bowl.
3. Glue in place
4. Carefully file down the turquoise not quite flush (we cheapskates try to catch the broken bits and use them on the next project)
5. Turn down flat. I do not recall exactly how he did this part and unfortunately, it's the crux of the discussion. I don't recall that he did anything special and his career predated carbide tools.

In any case, his results were terrific. He brought a good sized aspen bowl to the meeting and said the difference between the bowl without and with the turquoise band was "the difference between a $75 bowl and a $300 bowl," and it only added about 5 minutes to the process.

While out mountain grouse hunting a few years ago, I literally stumbled across some very blue-green rocks. They're just a little greener than a turquoise color, but I'm certain they're free and colored all the way through, and they crush up fairly easily. The last time I used the material was for a salad bowl set for a friend who appreciates that it comes from the mountains he looks at out his giant front window.
 

Bill Boehme

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The color of turquoise varies depending on where it was mined. For example, the Sleeping Beauty mine turquoise is pastel blue in color, the Lander Blue mine turquoise is a darker blue, and there are several mines in Nevada that produce green turquoise and there are all shades in between.

The turquoise in most jewelry that you find has been "stabilized" because it is too soft in its natural state to be usable. This explains why it's Moh's hardness is only about 5.5. I learned from Google that about 90% of all turquoise is soft and considered low grade in its natural state. It is stabilized under high pressure with epoxy or plastic resin. The relatively rare and really hard natural turquoise is very expensive. Judging by the large amount of generic gray rocks in the turquoise that I have I think it probably was gathered from tailings or even road gravel. It was definitely harder than Moh's 5.5 since it dulled my carbide tools instantly.and it took many hours of grinding with the masonry blade to grind the turquoise down flush.
 
Joined
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College Station, Texas
I grind plastic pony beads from Michaels in a cheap coffee grinder, filter out the big pieces with a tea strainer from Walmart and apply using thin CA or epoxy. The advantages are that you can choose your color or mix multiple colors for a realistic appearance. Best of all, the plastic inlay turns, sands and finishes just like wood with any of your tools. You can also use it to make decorative rings in bowls and platters. Here is a link with more details. http://www.aggieturner.com/preparing and using ground pony beads.pdf
 

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Joined
Jan 18, 2006
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Pueblo West, CO
Keep your eyes open for gem and mineral shows. My wife has them on her radar and I go with her at least once a year. Last year she was visiting with a guy about turquoise and I asked him if he had any scrap turquoise and wound up getting a pound of the stuff for $20. Should last the rest of my life. Allyn
 
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The color of turquoise varies depending on where it was mined. For example, the Sleeping Beauty mine turquoise is pastel blue in color, the Lander Blue mine turquoise is a darker blue, and there are several mines in Nevada that produce green turquoise and there are all shades in between.

The turquoise in most jewelry that you find has been "stabilized" because it is too soft in its natural state to be usable. This explains why it's Moh's hardness is only about 5.5. I learned from Google that about 90% of all turquoise is soft and considered low grade in its natural state. It is stabilized under high pressure with epoxy or plastic resin. The relatively rare and really hard natural turquoise is very expensive. Judging by the large amount of generic gray rocks in the turquoise that I have I think it probably was gathered from tailings or even road gravel. It was definitely harder than Moh's 5.5 since it dulled my carbide tools instantly.and it took many hours of grinding with the masonry blade to grind the turquoise down flush.
That's pretty similar to my experience. I like the look of the turquoise set in black epoxy. To do that you have to grind it flush to expose the contrast. Dave Mueller's suggestion sounds like something I'll have to try.
 
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Colorado Springs, CO
I also get my turquoise from vendors at gem and mineral shows. I use two methods for grinding the turquoise. For coarse stuff, I use a plugged pipe described by others, but I use a long bolt sized to fit inside the pipe. Once I have the stuff ground down to about 1/16" or so, I shift to a regular stainless steel mortar and pestle. Once the turquoise is down to that size, it grinds down without spraying around the room. For gluing the turquoise in place, I use two-part epoxy exclusively. Then I use diamond sanding blocks and pads used for glass and granite polishing -- available on Amazon. I use 60-grit and 120-grit. Sanding blocks work on flat and convex surfaces; sanding pads are more flexible for use on concave surfaces. The diamond pads cut turquoise and epoxy without damaging the wood very much.
 

Bill Boehme

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I also get my turquoise from vendors at gem and mineral shows. I use two methods for grinding the turquoise. For coarse stuff, I use a plugged pipe described by others, but I use a long bolt sized to fit inside the pipe. Once I have the stuff ground down to about 1/16" or so, I shift to a regular stainless steel mortar and pestle. Once the turquoise is down to that size, it grinds down without spraying around the room. For gluing the turquoise in place, I use two-part epoxy exclusively. Then I use diamond sanding blocks and pads used for glass and granite polishing -- available on Amazon. I use 60-grit and 120-grit. Sanding blocks work on flat and convex surfaces; sanding pads are more flexible for use on concave surfaces. The diamond pads cut turquoise and epoxy without damaging the wood very much.

Welcome to the forum, William and thanks for the very informative post.
 
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Fort Worth, Texas
I tried crushing turquoise and quickly decided that life was too short to spend my time busting rocks. The pieces I could find after crushing were either too large or too small for my use. Any pieces that were usable developed legs and escaped the mortar before I could get them. I decided that it was much more time efficient to just buy the crushed stone in the needed sizes from one of the suppliers.

I tend to overfill the groove or void so the turquoise is slightly above the surface. I use 3M diamond disks (2" or 3") on a power sander to level the stone. The key to using the diamond disks successfully seems to be using water as a lubricant. The disks are expensive but washable and reusable. Once the stone is level with the wood surface, you can continue finishing the wood and stone together using regular sanding disks.
 

Bill Boehme

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That's pretty similar to my experience. I like the look of the turquoise set in black epoxy. To do that you have to grind it flush to expose the contrast. Dave Mueller's suggestion sounds like something I'll have to try.

Another option is to paint the groove black before filling it with turquoise. It adds some depth to the inlay while also creating an effect that is comparable to using black epoxy.
 
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Cuero, Texas
I had a welder friend make a kind of mortar/pestle. Got tired of the "splash" and devised a really simple solution. Melted a hole in the bottom of a dixie cup, just big enough for the shaft of the pestle, big part of the cup slides down and covers the action area--no more splash.
I try to fill to at or nearly even and use the powder & really small pieces for the gaps and holes. I prefer to use epoxy, but for fill ins will use CA--it binds just fine to the cured epoxy. (Will bubble etc, if epoxy is not cured--one of those reactions you don't want).
The turquoise does dull steel quickly so I tend to use carbides if I have big "stick ups", then it's my unfavorite thing to do-----sanding.
I get my turquoise mostly off the web. Alltribes has good stuff, kinda pricey. I have experimented with ebay---some good some bad-- for the price was not bad. Even bought some Chrysocolite chunks---really like the color.
 
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