I doubt it's quartz actually but maybe someone else here knows what the white matrix is composed of.

I had a ring made with a black opal many years ago when I lived in CA. But the jeweler made it so the gem was protected by being almost inlaid into the gold. Hard to describe but the gold sides came up slightly higher than the top of the cab to protect it from bangs and scratches.

I don't advise setting an opal the way it is in this post as a ring since it is exposed to breakage and abrasion.

IMO opals are better used in settings like pendants and earrings that are less exposed to wear and damage.

I use tin oxide or linde A on labradorite and spectrolite.

Cerium oxide is best for quartz based stones IMO.

As other have mentioned polish in cracks is best solved with an ultrasonic cleaner. Smaller ones are not that expensive and work well for most stones.

As with any stone you need to get to a flawless prepolish before final polish step.

I polish on soft leather (medium to slow speeds) with any of these with good results:

Linde A
Tin Oxide
Poly Al F

Don't use Cerium Oxide for lapis.

Also as usual keep a water spray bottle handy and spray your leather when needed when polishing.

I have been working with similar stabilized Kingman for a few years now. In my experience you want to avoid rough that has large pockets of translucent epoxy. Cabs cut from this will have blue floating in the epoxy and it looks bad. Stabilized is good but some rough should be avoided IMO.

Here is a cab I cut last year as an example of nice stabilized that comes from a similar pocket.




Notice that the cream colored matrix is not translucent epoxy.

When you said Henderson it perked up my ears. This is the location for Henderson Amethystine which is a purple agate.

Compare your rocks and colors to this material:

http://www.finegemdesigns.com/hendersonamethystineinformation.htm



This gem is also cataloged in Lowell Foster's gem guides:

http://www.finegemdesigns.com/americanagateguides.htm

Lavic Siding in the Mojave Desert, CA?

The best part is you don't have to worry about the stone getting broken or scratched in the future.

 

Well done.

 

You generally get what you pay for. My one complaint with Covington is with my 16" slab saw.

I bought the budget model instead of more expensive and the vise has aluminum instead of all steel components. This meant that after a few years some of the aluminum parts had wear so bad I had to retrofit the unit.

My Lortone LS-10 also had a similar problem with aluminum vise parts.

My Covington 4 wheel grinding unit is awesome though and no problems at all for many years of use.

I understand the space issue since when I started in my 20's I lived in a studio apartment and slept in my living room. My lapidary setup was on my kitchen table. But even then I still had a separate trim saw and grinding setup. But my grinding was done on a used Prismatic 8" faceting machine not vertical wheels.

This was back when I was cutting quartz handpieces for the metaphysical market.

Very cool and innovative and the fact that the stop is the same profile as the saw blade makes it even better.

This allows basically any shape to be rotated into the blade and give a consistent groove depth.

Really pure genius.

 

Thanks for posting southerly. This is probably the best explanation. The key is the felting which gives the rocks their toughness and ability to be carved into thin pieces and sculptures.

Of course this felting can't be quantified/qualified 100% and used to define which amphibole is "nephrite jade" and which is not "nephrite jade."

There is no scientific dividing line which defines jade by it's percent of felting.

At least not to my knowledge at this time.

BTW I still have your awesome quote on my website.

http://www.finegemdesigns.com/blackjadesprojectpage3.htm

:o)

I have Cassiar that's all green with no other colors.

But whatever, my second choice would be Polar but that's simply because Cassiar has been more available on the market than Polar the last 10 years.

I would guess Cassiar Mountain green jade from Canada.

OK I think I see it. Check out this photo: