Fun Facts and Information

• Repair wood jaws on your Diamond saw with hickory instead of maple.
  Hickory is tough and will last longer.
   
• Use a bronze welding rod for marking on slabs. It will last longer.
  Source Hidden Treasurers.
  Source: Cincinnati Lap. Soc.
   
• Cleaning a contaminated Buff: Stone sometimes develop fine, thread like scratches while being polished on a buff. This may be due to grit that has penetrated the polish buff. One grain will do it. To clean, hold a piece of plywood of balsa wood firmly against the spinning buff. The grit will embed itself in the wood, leaving the buff clean.
  Source Staurolite 7/00 via Cincinnati Lap. Soc.
   
• To repair a fracture in a stone such as agate, heat the stone to about 200 Deg. And put epoxy on the heated stone, starting at the beginning of the fracture. The epoxy will soak into the fracture and hid it. When it has cured for at least 24 hrs. Continue to sand and polish. Be sure all surface epoxy is removed from the surface of the stone.
  Source:  Brukner Rockette 05/02

Is it?

Is it Cubic Zirconia or Diamond?
If the stone is loose, turn it upside down on its table and slide it over a thin black line printed on a piece of paper. When looking straight down through a CZ, you will see a circle in the center of the stone. A diamond won’t do this.

Is it citrine or topaz?
Clean the stone, then, using a toothpick, put a drop of water on the table of the stone. The water will form a high bubble on real topaz. On quartz, the water flattens out.

Source: Breccia 2/02 via The Petoskey Stone 9/02

Note: The table of a stone is, the flat top of a faceted stone.