| Original Message: Typically "block" is 100% resin and dyes |
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"Reconstituted" is a marketing term and very inaccurate.
No real stone is harmed in the making of so called reconstituted stone.
It's all plastic with swirls of dye or other colors of plastic swirled into it. The only block material I've seen that had *any* real stone in it is some lapis block. A very nice blue colored resin with tiny chips of pyrite in it. The plastic undercuts the harder pyrite when you polish it. If there was any real material in the block you show it would be harder than the surrounding plastic. Block is all very smooth when polished. There is a man made material that does use real stone. "Compressed nugget" is the cutters term for larger chunks of real stone formed into a block with resin and dye. The so called "purple turquoise" sold by Colbaugh and Dakota Stone is compressed nugget with real turquoise and red dyed resin. Recently they started to make a gold colored matrix by adding metallic epoxy material similar to the liquid metal repair products. This newer version is called "Bronze infused purple turquoise." When compressed nugget is sliced you can see the edges of the nuggets and chips of real stone. If you look carefully at the Dakota Stones pictures you can see small pieces of real surrounded by metallic bronze in the sea or dyed resin. The stone is both dyed and stabilized by this process. http://www.dakotastones.com/purple-turquoise.aspx All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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