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Post by macsgems on Apr 26, 2008 18:10:17 GMT -5
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Post by ghoti on May 5, 2008 23:12:49 GMT -5
Any Magma members tried these gravels? Are they worth the money or not? Your honest opinion appreciated
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Post by bammer on May 6, 2008 7:28:13 GMT -5
I bought the single bag and got it in the mail Saturday. My daughter picked out about 35 small sapphires. Mostly light green. All were so small that I don't have a dop small enough to try to facet most of them.(2-4mm) One was about 6mm and kinda flat. That was the only one I could have tried to facet but it was a little too thin. The material looked like mine run stuff so you may get a bit more fortunate than me and get something bigger.
They say to get the colors you need to heat treat the stones.
I had this on my list of things to do since I saw the Cash & Treasure show on Montana Sapphires about a year ago with Becky W. I saw the post so I gave it a try. So now I have some raw Montana Sapphires and I feel more complete for some reason, even though I didn't get to facet anything. As long as you are having some fun then you are doing it right. bammer
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Post by lizziebird on May 6, 2008 18:32:38 GMT -5
I bought two buckets last fall, I think. Shipping was very quick. I don't do any cutting or faceting or anything, just looking for some interesting rocks. I found a bunch of small sapphires, mostly clear to very pale blues, greens, and pinks. A few darker colors, but just a very few, and very small. I took my time with it and the "entertainment value" was just fine (I mostly poked though one small tray full at a time, in my kitchen, on rainy winter days...) and I have a small spice jar full of nifty MT sapphires.
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Post by bammer on May 7, 2008 6:43:19 GMT -5
I went through the material again last night and found several more. The biggest one is about 8mm across, I probably could try to facet this one. Total of about 70. Like lizziebird says there is alot of entertainment value to this kind of stuff. If you have the extra money and enjoy this kind of thing, then get a bucket. If you don't have the extra money and hope you will find a $1000 stone then maybe you shouldn't, but I guess you possibly could....thats what makes it fun.
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Post by jwnagy on May 7, 2008 14:46:52 GMT -5
Bammer,
While I was demonstarting faceting during our local show this year, someone walked up to me and asked me if I would take a look at some sapphires they had, to see if they were facetable. It was all Montana material, similar in size to what you show, none larger than 8mm.
While pretty, these were so small I didn't consider it worth the time (or my eyesight ;D).
Maybe for my daughter, if she collected them and wanted something cut, but I generally don't cut that small.
Jeff
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