TruStone turnability

[Chaz]

I see TruStone offered in levels of difficulty - easy, medium and hard.

Regarding Hard, what does that mean? What are the characteristics of a Hard TruStone blank, that make it the most difficult to turn?

 

[BHuij]

I keep my HSS tools razor sharp. The only time I've ever turned TruStone, it was dulling my roughing gouge to the point of not being able to hardly cut anything, within literal seconds. After my 5th trip to the grinder in as many minutes, I admitted defeat and turned the rest of it with my carbide tool, which went better. That was a small section of a Malachite Green TruStone I was using as a decorative band on a pen cap. Not sure whether Malachite is considered easy, medium, or hard.

Take that for what it's worth. I'd just go straight to carbide.

 

[ed4copies]

Carbide is better than HSS.

The gold veins are especially difficult, the material wants to break at the veins when drilling (see my video on popsicle stick reinforcement, if you want to improve your odds)

And the material is expensive, so failures are costly!!

Faux stone is a good substitute.
FWIW,
Ed