Working with stone for the first time

[ChefBleu86]

A friend has asked me to make a couple of sgian dubh for her drum and pipes crew. She wants me to incorporate some local stone she's gathered in the handle, primarily fire agate and obsidian.

I've never worked with stone before, what do I need to know? I feel like obsidian is a poor handle material because of the way it chips, but a fire agate strip in a rich wood handle could be gorgeous. Do I need specialized tools? Where do I even start?

Any input or advice welcome.

Thanks!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Well, you need to know a lot. You will need lapidary equipment to cut/shape and polish it., and some jewelry skills to make mounts for it.

If she gave you finished stones, then that is better. You still need to make a bezel for it.

The place for stones on a sgian dubh is on the butt cap. Shape a simple bezel of silver, nickel silver, or brass to fit the butt cap. Cut the stone to fit.

 

[Forrest Taylor]

You'll need diamond grinding wheels.
Cab King makes a nice machine with 6 wheels from course to polished.
A small diamond saw is almost mandatory.
Dop sticks are pretty handy, basically wax tipped dowel rods to hold the cabs.

Be careful grinding the fire agate. The "fire" is like little bubbles in the stone. If you're not careful you can grind through the top of the bubble really easily.