Is this Abrasive OK?

[Fossil]

Hello everyone, this is my second post and I'm a complete beginner to jewellery making.
To the point, I've started barrelling some stones to set into some jewellery projects floating around in my mind.
Whilst looking at some of the rough stones that I purchased, one caught my eye and I thought that it would look good with flat sides, and so I've since tried to smooth it's sides, using some old cheap oil stones and wet and dry that I had in the shed, but it's taking too long - or am I being too impatient? I've read through some of the posts on here and realise I need a diamond sharpening stone - a lapidary machine is too expensive.
I've looked at some sharpening stones which are advertised for sharpening steel tools (chisels etc.) Would these be OK? I'm concerned that after one use they would be worn out.

thanks
Gary

[metalsmith]

Hi Gary,

any abrasive is generally ok, as is any level of mechanisation. However the speed of shaping stones depends on a number of things: the comparative hardness of the abrasive compared to the stone you're trying to shape being one. Others are the size of the abrasive - the larger the abrasive, generally the quicker the abrasion; this also depends on the shape of the abrasive (sharp abrasives work more quickly), its resilience, tho' abrasives are generally resilient, this measure might be more appropriate to describe the resilience of the material in which the abrasive is carried. Emery paper for example will deteriorate quicker than the emery or the adhesive may give up the game.

So, manually shaping stones might be perfectly ok with oil stones if the material of the stone is softer than the oil stone. As you will have noticed this can be slow. So mechanisation can be the answer. This could come in the form of cutting blades or grinding. I use a diamond tile cutter which I picked up second hand for £5 and a dremel (type tool - not Dremel itself - for around £20). It doesn't have to cost the earth. Alternatively you can pick up a bench grinder or there are specialised stone polishing tools.

Search Cooksongold.com for "carborundum abrasives" and you can find different shaped materials to carve your stone. Other than slicing with a saw 'dremel' blade, you can use cylinder shaped grinders to stroke a flat plane on your stone or carve curves. The closer you get to the finished shape you are wanting, use finer grade abrasive materials. Then to finish you can tumble again with increasingly fine grade abrasives or polish to your desired finish with diamond polishes. You'll find other recent threads discussing this.

Hope this helps

[Fossil]

Hi Metalsmith, yes it helps a great deal, thanks.
I'll have a look on Cooksongold's site and get some of those abrasives and a bench grinder I think. A tile cutter sounds good as well.
Thanks again:))

Gary