Turquoise real vs Inlace

Re: Turquoise real vs Inlace

George Taylor

I have played with a little with both ... nothing looks (or sells) as good as the real stuff. I would go with turquoise. I can grind it down to dust with a little jig made of pipe fittings a friend showed me and I easily duplicated. It helps on the sanding and leveling the surface. You can probably find the jig on the net.

Re: Turquoise real vs Inlace  *LINK*

Dick Coers

No experience with this product, but the blend product looks pretty good.


http://www.walstonwoodworks.com

Re: Turquoise real vs Inlace

Dick Hines

I use a lot of turquoise in burls. But only in the voids that do not go all the way through the wall.

Inlace just does not do it for me. It looks like what it is, fake turquoise and people can tell.

I have set turquoise in the small voids and fill the larger one using a spoon to pore the turquoise the chips in. I will fill the voids with chips first and then after sanding I will use the dust to fill the remaining voids.

Re: Turquoise real vs Inlace

Jim H

Thanks for your help, I think I will go with the real thing.

I have found "Floor sweepings" at $100 a pound from Colbaugh processing, any other ideas besides the little packs from the standard woodworking supply houses?

Re: Turquoise real vs Inlace

Bill Boehme

I have used both and the plastic Inlace is fine for lower priced items if you are selling stuff. Turquoise Inlace turns turns easily unless you wait too long. If you wait weeks to turn it, it may seem as hard as the real stuff and real turquoise is as hard as ... uh ... hard rocks because that is what it is and tool edges don't like rock. Turquoise has a Mohs hardness of 5 to 6 although you will find that the "floor sweepings variety is much harder because the pieces usually are a mixture of turquoise and harder minerals such as quartz and that is the reason that it is floor sweepings. It will dull HSS in a second and carbide in just a few seconds. I have used a carborundum matrix type circle sawblade intended for bricks, concrete, and tile with the side held flat against an inlay of turquoise with light pressure and that will work if you want it flush, but it's a slow go. The idea of this technique being to knock off the high spots and not follow the contour of the surface. Use the tool rest to brace the blade. The difficulty is getting everything flush when grinding materials of differing hardness -- it's sort of like sanding southern yellow pine. I don't like having humps and valleys in a "flush" surface so getting it truly flush is the big challenge.

"Floor sweepings" are okay if you recognize that much of it really will be floor sweepings. You will also need something to crush some of the largest pieces. I use a large diameter pipe coupling with a plug on one end as my mortar and a pipe nipple with a cap as the pestle. Put a few chunks of turquoise in, wrap a rag around the top, and use a large two pound hammer. If your aim isn't too good, get somebody else to hold it while you hit the top of the pestle. The rag is essential to keep pieces from flying all over the place. This will also make you fully appreciate how hard turquoise really is.

From my experience, I would either leave the stones below the level of the wood and fill with Inlace or intentionally leave them proud. Grinding the stones flush was far too much work. Don't use CA because it is brittle and chips when you turn. Also, epoxy will yellow significantly over time. Inlace remains transparent.

Re: Turquoise real vs Inlace

Dick Hines

Jim Woodturners Catalog has crushed and powered turquoise in 1oz bags. They have quite a few crushed stone inlays. T the turquoise is the only one I have used.

Re: Turquoise real vs Inlace

Jim H

Bill & Dick,

Thank you for your help. I think I will try the stuff from the Woodturners catalog, or get the little better quality to crush. I had not really thought about the floor sweepings having a lot of quartz and junk in it.