hey there everybody welcome back for another lapidary video and this one's going to be a
little bit different than any other polishing video I've made because we're going to be doing
something that I've never done before and that is making a cabochon in its fullness from start
to finish and I am very nervous about that because I like I said I've never done that before there's
a lot of stuff I don't know and I'm learning I'm still learning a lot I'm not at all an expert in
anything in the realm of lapidary so uh I'm really excited about this but I'm also very nervous and
I've wanted to do this for a while but I've been a little uh been a little scared to dive in So today
we're gonna dive in this video is going to be a little bit longer and that's another reason why
this is going to be a little different than uh some of our other polishing videos which I try
to make a little more quick little more exciting and uh yeah we're just gonna this is gonna be a
little more of a chill hangout first time making a cabochon so let's look at the material we're
going to be making our first cabochon with so here's the material we're going to be making
our cabochon from it is called Gary green Jasper I was gifted this when I spent some time at the
capking headquarters they gifted it to me and it is very very beautiful I don't know where
this stuff is found I'm sure you could Google it I haven't so I'm not sure but it's really
beautiful green is my favorite color and this thing is just killing it absolutely fantastic and
looking at both sides of the slab here it seems like this side compared to this side has less
Pockets so we're going to be pulling our cabochon from this area right here and I'm thinking kind of
coming down right here up and then over kind of a I don't even know what shape that would be but
yeah that's uh that's kind of what I'm going for and this right here this is my five inch
trim saw I just put a brand new five inch thin Center blade on it we got to fill it with water
still but once we draw this shape on the slab here we'll cut it into the rough shape before
we head over to the cabKing so let's let's draw the rough shape of what we're going for with this
foreign that's actually not too bad so that's kind of the shape I want it to go with so we will
now get some water in our trim saw and we'll cut that shape and uh yeah hopefully that goes well
so trimming that took about three and a half four minutes and it took it from that original slab to
this right here and if you can see the lines that I drew with the permanent marker there's
a lot of extra wiggle room on the sides just because I am a little nervous and didn't want
to screw it up before we even got started so now we get to hop onto our eight inch cabKing
and start bringing those edges down and start shaping it and uh yes very excited to get to
that point and now the work begins so the first wheel we're going to start on is the 220 Grit
diamond wheel and we're gonna bring these edges down not all the way to the line but I'd say right
around in there and then it'll give us a very very good shape to start with so let's do that
so we worked that pretty good and it's funny it's got this weird little pocket here but
that's gonna be on the back side right here and that's going to get brought down just a
little bit but that is kind of where we're at with the shape of this and I gave it a little
extra room because as I was working it I would flip it over and I'd look at it and I'm like I
really like that I like that size that and it's going to get a little smaller as we work it so
we'll just we'll just go from there so now as you can see it's very boxy and we have to bring this
top this is going to be the top the main display of the cabochon we need to start doming it giving
it a nice rounded top and then the uh the bottom here it's well it's gonna look like this kind of
like this right here that's that's what I'm going for with the top right here that Dome
foreign curvature coming in and then flat bottom and we're not going to fully polish the back or
the bottom however you want to see it but we're going to make it look a little nicer
than just a rough cut so yeah that's uh that's kind of what we're going for this figure 47.
and this is one of these little diameter abrasive how do I use Diamond abrasive books and uh yeah
this is what I'm using to try to find find my way through this whole process so let's start
giving our piece that kind of a top to it and we're gonna hop right back on the 220 grit to do
most of the work with that because if we went on to the 280 it's going to take forever so we'll uh
hop back on here turn the water on a little switch and get back to work
look at how beautiful that is wet isn't that just stunning we're still working on getting
a rounded face right here it's really flat right here but I think if I get it brought down a little
bit more here when we move forward and we'll finish off that rounded Dome so I'm gonna work
it a little bit longer here so here is after the 220 grit you can see there's still a bit
of a flat spot up here but I'm gonna try to see how it goes when I move on to the 280 grid the
black resin wheel see if we can give this more of a rounded top here if not we can back it up
but we'll see what happens after we're working on the 220 grit for a long time I did add these
um I I don't know all the terms I said I I don't know everything I'm not an expert but
I think these are called girdle lines I'm probably wrong if I'm wrong correct me in
the comments but added those in there as well and we're gonna uh yeah we're just gonna keep
going here this uh this pocket right here did pop out so I'm hoping that doesn't as we work
this down doesn't start showing up right here if it does I may have to bring this top down
to get that out of there because I want I want this to be perfect so it was perfect
as it can be with our skill set right now so yeah let's let's move on to 280 grit wheel
oh wow so we spent probably 25 30 minutes on the 280 grit wheel just working this cabochon to its
rounded shape and not just the rounded shape like we're really trying to get that flat spot out of
the center out right here we worked really hard to get that but we were also working on getting
the scratches out from the previous stage so we were doing kind of double duty on this thing
trying to get scratches out and round it perfectly perfectly each stage that we move on from now the
600 1200 3000 on a micro level we're going to continue to round this thing out I'm just gonna
I think it's gonna pop so well and uh the other thing too with this Gary green Jasper that I'm
seeing and it's full of character and what I mean by that is there are some kind of some pockets
some little I wouldn't even call them fractures it's just it just has
depth to it literally uh let me show you oh my gosh I just dropped it
oh it's okay man I just I need a diaper change here wow that was close I've always heard those
stories about dropping the cab and it cracks I just just about fainted here okay so here is
where we're at with it that's our shape I love the shape I think it's really beautiful I don't think
this pocket's going to cause a huge concern I mean um you can kind of see it right there
I don't know I don't know if I'm gonna work that out gives it a little character we'll just we'll
wait and see but yeah you can see it has a bit of a dome we'll continue to work it out a lot more
on the next stage but it's just gonna it's gonna get better every time but you can see right here
that just showed up and it's just part of the detailing of
Gary green Jasper it's got a lot of it on the back too little pits and dips to it as
well so yeah we're now going to move on to this side of the cabKing I love hanging out
on this side we got 600 1200 and 3 000 so let's have some fun on the 600 grit wheel
so one of the things that I'm doing constantly with each stage that we're
going through is I'm turning off the water grabbing a towel and drying the piece off
and then I'm taking it and I'm looking at it in the light and seeing where they're
maybe are some flat spots like right here I can see there's a little bit of a flat spot
and I think even right in here still there's a bit of a flat spot that it looks good here here here
is just right there we gotta continue to work this to even that out but to work out also scratches
from the stage fryer so doing this multiple times during each stage is helping me figure out
what I got to work on so that when we move forward we're ready to move forward and when
we're done we're not looking at and going well we missed a spot so uh yeah uh I know where my
trouble area is obviously right here this flat spot and I gotta take a closer look because I'm
a little far back but we're pretty early in the 600 grit stage as well so yeah we'll keep going
I am excited because we got through the 600 grit resin wheel and we're gonna move on to the 1200
and it's looking really really good so far and I'll show you here in a second I just want to
say if you guys are liking this video so far do me a huge favor help support the video leave a
thumbs up leave a comment uh let me know what you think of the process so far up into the
600 crit and we're going to move on to the 1200 now after I show you where we're at it's looking
good all right I'm gonna try not to drop this again here but there it is after this 600 grit
and the light's already playing on it very well so I really think after 1200 it's gonna
look amazing and even better after 3 000 and the once was flat spot that's in the middle I don't
I think it's I mean if there is one it's hardly there it's I'm going to be working
this area very hard every stage from now on and it's just gonna get more and more rounded so
I'm really looking forward to seeing it after the 1200 Grand so let's get started on there
so we have a few more spots we gotta work out I was just inspecting it here
uh it looks like right in this area here on these it's almost like a little flat spot right here
but well not really but it's just kind of That Awkward transition right here
I gotta work that a little bit uh the some marks from the last stage and then
I think besides that it's so good it's looking really good that's after about five minutes on
the 1200 grit wheel so we'll probably hit it for another five ten minutes just uh just to be safe
so we just wrapped up the 1200 grit resin wheel we worked it for about five seven minutes and
this is looking fantastic I already showed you a little bit what it looks like so I'm
gonna wait until after we finish up on the 3 000 grit wheel to show you what it looks like but
that's the last stage for the wheels so let's get going with that and uh I think uh
based off of the material I don't even know the hardness of this it's taking a Polish very well
so we might be able to wrap it up at the 3000 grit wheels so let's let's get going foreign
my hands don't hurt at all
so we've been working on that Gary green cabochon for I'd say two and a half hours and
it paid off because we're done with it and I love it I think it turned out absolutely beautiful it
has natural flaws in it some like those divots that depth that I talked about earlier not really
any fractures or anything like that which is really fun to see because usually when I work
like Superior agates there's a lot of fractures in there so it was fun to work something that didn't
have a ton of fractures but it did have some just natural character flaws which is perfectly fine so
let's go take a peek at it I'm really excited to show you look at the greens and that
and the way the light plays on there you can see right there in the light there's some of those
natural character flaws I was talking about we could maybe bring the Dome down a little bit but
I just feel like it's just part of it it's gonna keep going down a little bit but overall the shape
the size everything I think it turned out very well and uh this is the back side I hit it just
for probably five seconds with every stage there's still marks and everything but with cabochons you
know if they're going to be late into jewelry you're not going to see the back so I didn't
really need to do that but I just thought why not and uh this little pocket up here I think that's
I don't think it causes too much cause for concern I don't think it would really be noticed but
I think the coloring on that is fantastic and really happy with how it turned out my first
completed cabochon ever I'm really uh I'm very happy with it I'm very proud of the work that I
put into this I think it turned out I think it turned out very well and let me know what you
think about that if there's any areas where I can get better at because I am hoping to
someday be able to consider myself a lapidary artist I don't think I am one right now I know
I'm not an expert or anything like that I'm just trying to get there someday I'm aspiring to be a
lapidary artist so I had a lot of fun with this and it definitely helped me boost my confidence
and know you can make cabochons and I'm gonna make more of them I have a ton of material and
I'm really excited about it so if you like this video I know it's probably going to be a longer
one appreciate you sticking through it if you've made it to this point if you liked it leave a
thumbs up leave a comment let me know what you thought and we'll see on the next one bye foreign