MS Book and Mineral Company Index to Minerals, Mineral Books, and Rocks  Available Mineralogy Books Select Mineral Books Rock, Gem, and Mineral Book Catalog Place an Order
MS Book and Mineral Company Chip or Channel Inlay Work Applications Chip Inlay:  To convert any gem materials into smaller chips or pieces for chip inlay, place rock into a small zip-lock plastic bag and hit with hammer on concrete slab.  Protect your eyes. You will need pieces of gem material of all sizes so don't break gem material into pieces that are too tiny to use later. Softer  materials like turquoise and malachite require much less force to break them into smaller pieces.  Material offered here is hard enough to work and polish into quality finished pieces.  Prepare your metal work that you will set your stone chips into.  I always use sterling silver 3 dimensional castings prepared using lost wax techniques. Mix your two-part epoxy and blend in tempra powder of an appropriate color.  Use just enough tempra so it will opaque when it is dry. Pick individual gem pieces using a tweezers  set them into epoxy glue mixture in the spaces or channels in the metalwork  I always color the epoxy with black tempra powder for a consistent background color. If you don't color the glue, you will be able to see inner surface of the metal behind your stones when finished.    Your glue set time will be about 20 minutes at a normal room temperature so don't mix too much glue at one time.  With experience, you will be able to complete 3-6 pieces of jewelry per batch of glue depending on their size.  If working on a large piece, you might set stones into that one piece only. Always mix epoxy on a paper or cardboard surface.  If you mix epoxy on a plastic or metal surface it will not set up.  I don't know why, but it never would set for for me. Grind your work smooth with your grinder the next day.  Sand and polish.  Typically your work will end up perfectly  flat with the stone chips accenting the metal work. Channel Inlay:  Use your diamond saw to cut pieces approximately the a size needed to fit into any channel.  Use your grinder to get a perfect fit.  Epoxy the  rocks cut into channels of your created metalwork.  Let the epoxy cure completely.  Grind the piece flat so the metal of your creation shows between the stonework.  Polish the piece.  Done.  If you prefer a more advanced application, cut each stone to fit into the channels and polished each stone as a separate cabochon. Polish the metalwork first, then glue your stones into place. Done.  Images are hyperlinked.....click mineral to enlarge $100 orders will receive a free sample of Epoxy 330 to get you started.
	Gold Crocidolite, polished Griqualand, Koega, Namibia Priced at: $ 25 for a 200 gram parcel
	Gold Crocidolite, unpolished with sharp edges where tight fits are required Griqualand, Koega, Namibia Priced at: $ 20 for a 200 gram parcel
	Malachite Congo Priced at: $ 30 for a 200 gram parcel This a mixture of  small slabs and pieces useful for inlay work.  You will find pieces almost ready to set into channels.  This is quite good material as it is dense and polishes with a mirror finish.
	Lapis Lazuli Afghanistan Small slabs and chips for inlay work.  This is not gem grade, but you can select the pieces you wish to use.  It is very good for inlay work . Many pieces will cut deep blue stones.  It polishes well and is loaded with pyrites which indicates you are getting genuine lapis. Priced at: $ 30 for a 200 gram parcel
	Turquoise Arizona This is small slabs and pieces for inlay work.  All the material is stabilized turquoise so it is well adapted to whatever you wish to do with it.  Crush it, grind it, it usually polishes well. It consists of blue and green turquoise originally from  New Mexico and Nevada.  It was already mixed together when I received this material as "scrap" from German cutting houses over 25 years ago. Priced at: $ 25 for a 200 gram parcel
	Rhodochrosite Argentina This a mixture of  small slabs and pieces useful for inlay work or cutting small cabochons Priced at $ 30 for a 200 gram parcel
	Sardonyx Brazil Fine quality hard material with contrasting bands of reddish-brown and white I don't know how this material would do if crushed.  I always used it to cut custom cabochons or as custom cut pieces in inlay work Priced at $ 30 for a 200 gram parcel
	Chevron Amethyst Namibia These are crystals which were tumbled to remove their sharp edges Priced at $ 30 for a 200 gram parcel
	Nephrite slices This material makes cutting nephrite cabs and inlays easy.  This material is smaller than what is sold in the rough rock catalog Source of material unknown   Small pieces with largest dimension under 1" Priced at: $ 30 for a 200 gram parcel
	Multicolor Rough Crystal & White Potch Opal  Coober Pedy, South Australia Priced at: $ 100 for a 100 gram parcel; $ 50 for a 50 gram parcel; $ 25 for a 25 gram parcel
longitudinal slice	Petrified Palmwood Louisiana, USA Solid material containing  preserved vascular bundles in a contrasting color from the matrix; material usually contains no voids or holes; my research has identified more than 75 colors in Louisiana Palm;  it polishes to a mirror finish Available here only as  slices For palmwood cutting material so you can cut your own slices go to the rough rock catalog Slices are excellent for cabochons or channel inlay giving the pattern of bird feathers, etc. 5 mm thick slices: $ 5 for 1 sq. in.    7 mm thick slices:  $ 10 for 1 sq. in. For slices containing black palm, as in the upper photo, the cost is 10x regular palm price, as it is extremely rare
cross section slice
MS Book and Mineral Company Index to Minerals, Mineral Books, and Rocks Available Mineralogy Book Catalog Rock, Gem, and Mineral Book Catalog Place an Order