secure tgirl wizard

Courtesy of @flaskoflethe, we had the wonderful opportunity to experiment with knapping sapphire!

We started with this lovely piece of synthetic sapphire from Tom's Box of Rocks, although it started too round and needed to be thinned and flatenned before I could knap it.

After grinding, it was time to start flaking. I was not remotely prepared for how difficult this would be, the first flake took 6 attempts with the full force of my body to drive even a small little chip, and the sapphire fought me just as much for every next flake.

After hours of exhausting work, I was finally able to create a knapped edge across the entire piece. I could not manage to drive flakes all the way to the center, but both my tools and body had taken enough of a beating that I decided to declare the piece finished after polishing up the frosted center a little.

This was an amazing project, and I'm really thankful I finally had the opportunity to try out sapphire. I want to experiment with the material more, but I think for now and more pieces made in ruby or sapphire will be case by case commissions, as I cannot justify the cost, labor hours, and recovery time without a client paying upfront. Once I can get some more specialized tools like a lapidary saw I'm hopeful it'll be a more practical material to work with.

Feel free to ask any questions about this project! It was easily the most difficult material I have ever worked, and I'm excited to talk about it more to those curious.