<HTML>AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!
He beat me to it!
I was just about to get some quartz and load it into my dremmel!
Now, I see where he's done it already:
" The jeweled cutting surface was suggested by Petrie (1883) for the cutting of hard stones (i.e. those rocks that contain mainly minerals with hardnesses greater than 3 on Mohs' scale (Mh.)), in which jewels, such as beryl, topaz, chrysoberyl, corundum, or diamond, were needed since they are all harder than quartz (Mh.7). As pointed out by Lucas and Harris (1962) Petrie omitted quartz, which will also cut quartz. Quartz will cut quartz or any mineral less hard when used as an abrasive, either as loose abrasive grains (Stocks 1993; 2001), or as quartz crystals or flint shards attached to the blade. A simple experiment was conducted to test that quartz can be used to cut quartz in this manner. A wedge-shaped shard of quartz was attached to the end of a wooden toothpick with coarse thread and cyanoacrylate glue (Fig. 3). The tool was sheared across a piece of quartz (amethyst) for about 1 hour with very little pressure, during this the quartz shard was replaced as a result of wear due to abrasion. A horizontal groove was produced, and is about 1 mm in width with a depth of about 0.3 to 0.5 mm (Fig. 4). The surface of the groove is smooth and polished and has a rounded shape. The test demonstrates that a shard of quartz will abrade quartz using very little pressure. It would be expected that the rate of rock removal would increase as pressure was increased on the tool. "
This was EXACTLY where I was headed, as soon as I got some quartz. . I just got two slabs of granite from a cabinet shop, and was going to try several methods, but this one was the most promising.
Good for him!
Nice work, too.
Anthony</HTML>
