HOW TO CREATE A CABBING MATERIAL

Even though Mother Nature creates almost unbounded types and numbers of beautiful materials for cabbing, often I struggle to find a slab that will work for the project that I want to do.

- BOB RUSH

I had a project in mind where I wanted to be able to carve through a thin opaque layer and expose a layer of colorful patterns below. This time I decided to create my own slab with these characteristics.

MAKING THE SLAB

I started with a 3.5mm slab of basanite. This material is an opaque black basalt. It is usually available from a few dealers and quite often it is used to make doublets and triplets. It polishes very well.

Next, I used a 4mm thick slab of Brazilian agate that had a carnelian background with bright red streaks. I drew a teardrop shape on both pieces and trimmed them to my desired shape.

Because I don't have a flat lap, I used a piece of window glass and tumbling grit to flatten them in preparation for gluing them together. I used 220-grit first followed by 400-grit. I sanded them down to an even frosty look with no pits or saw lines. I washed off all of the grit and let them dry.