Turning stone blue lapis. Is it hard or is it me?

[alxe24]

I'll post pictures of the pen later. This is the 3rd time I turn this stone and I find it very difficult to turn. I just get dust (may be a bit more than that) but not a whole lot more.
I tried with a fresh grind and the following tools 1/2" Round skew, 3/8" spindle gouge, 3/4" roughing gouge, round and square medium size scrapers even a 3/8" bowl gouge. I just need to try a spoon and other eating utensils. Also I've tried different speeds and no improvements.
I am very happy with the pen but I took over 1 hour to shape the pen. Please don't laugh.
Anyway I have 2 more pieces coming and I have 4 other different kinds of stones to turn.
Any advice will truly be welcome.
Regards,
Alex

 

[ashaw]

Alex

Blue Lapis is one of the hardest materials I have come across that is not real stone.

I did two pens out of the material my first one took a little over a hour to turn. The second bent my mandel to broke my finger. Just take your time it's not you it's the material.

 

[DocStram]

Oh great! Now you guys tell me. I have been waiting months to try some blue lapis. (I've seen some really elegant looking lapis pens in the photo album) My order from CSUSA arrived just a couple of days ago ... with 3 blue lapis blanks. [:0]

 

[ashaw]

Al

When it's done it make one beautiful pen. Just take your time. This is what happend when I rushed it.

<br />

 

[Rob]

Alex,

I turned my first two blue lapis this past week. I thought the same things as the others mentioned. It was like taking a knife to a gun fight. Thought I'd never get it done compared to other materials. I posted the two I did, and ashaw is correct, they make very nice pens. Not sure I'll do them again though. Of course if they sell well enough I might change my mind[] Keep the faith.

Rob

 

[txcwboy]

Ive done a couple of them and I dont remember them being any worse than corian. I dont remember it really which tells me it was not a big deal. ?? Antler to me takes longer .

Dave

 

[alxe24]

I made 3 so far there were order and of course since there where order I sold out[)][)] I did order 2 more blanks just to have for future orders that are going to come Monday and boy the thought of turning 2 more makes me regret the order. But when I see the final result... then is well worth it. Make sure you use a kit that merits your hard work. I might make one for my self.
The one think that mitigate the turning session was the fact that I took a lot of fat of the blank on the belt sander prior to the lathe, the next one I’ll take even more and then make sure you wet sand. Trust me on this one I tried both ways. Not only is faster it looks batter and you would not end like a SMURF.
Don’t think you’ll get away with one sharpening session when turning this. As a matter of fact you should have the grinder right next to you and might as well live it on.
This is a little jig http://www.bellavistapens.com/ that came in handy for the sanding I hope it helps you for something like it helped me. I know you can do without. But hey I like jigs.

 

[martyb]

I've found that once the tool and the tru-stone get heated up a little, then you'll start to peal off ribbons. And yes, the Blue Lapis is the hardest of the bunch. Try a Bianco Nero sometime. It's still bad, but you can feel the difference.

Personnally, I put Corian easier to turn than Tru-Stone and Acrylic. It's softer than tru-stone, but isn't anywhere near as brittle as acrylic.

As with any of them, take your time. And when working with Tru-stone, sharpen, sharpen, sharpen.

 

[gerryr]

I have found the lapis Tru Stone quite hard, much harder than antler. I've found that a heavy 1" round nose scraper works better than anything else on Tru Stone and antler.