Switching gears to stone tables, this table top is a really nice grey marble containing recrystallized Triassic-aged ammonites. It is a big table at about 47 inches long by up to 22 inches wide and 2 inches thick. The stand is a dark grey marble from the same site. Tables are a product we wish to develop from this and other material such as the Monet Jasper Stone. Closer-up photo of the table top shown above. There is good contrast between the recrystallized ammonites and the matrix. The lines across the piece are from cutting with a bridge saw, which goes back and forth across the piece, cutting down one inch at a time (see below). The small black dots are phosphate pebbles. There are also some small bright blue pebbles. The piece has to be sanded and polished. Due to porosity, a filler will have to be used as well. This was the moment of truth – getting a big rock out is an ordeal all on its own involving an excavator, a too small pickup truck, and a forklift, but getting the first cut in and seeing that I was correct as to what was inside, was an exciting relief! I enjoyed a nice glass of wine on this table when I first got it home, using a glass that I made from a 120 year-old amethyst-colored beer bottle.
A smaller table at about 22 inches long, 19 inches wide, and 2 inches thick from the same site as the Wagyu Stone.
The results of my first experimentation using a rear-exhaust stone sander (uses compressed air to drive it and has continuous water flow out the face as well as flexible diamond-impregnated rubber sanding heads). It is pure joy to work on rocks with good equipment.
