Good? Bad? It takes a little luck and lots of experience.

Left: This is a large thick layer of very nice hard Kingman material.

I have a lot of experience with Turquoise, Kingman material in particular. But pretty much all the common locations Turquoise is from as well as a lot of the rare locations.

But even with all my experience, many times on a piece of Turquoise it comes down to my best guess.

That is just how Turquoise is and to me that is part of the fun of working with and cutting Turquoise.

Looking at this large piece of material in the picture, my best guess was that this is not only a good piece of Turquoise but might be an exceptional piece. There are many things that by looking at this piece made me think that.

Left: This is the side of the above piece after I have ground a couple flats.

The first thing is that this piece of Turquoise is very heavy for it's size. Heaviness in Turquoise is always a very good thing. If it is heavy that means the material is solid and not porous.

The second thing I see looking at this piece is the blue layer is solid and all the way around the piece.

Third, but not least, because of my experience I have see this material before and I just recognized that it is a very good piece of Turquoise.

As you can see in the picture this is great material and will make some stunning cabs.

Left: This is the top side of the above piece after I have ground a couple flats.

The gold matrix against the blue is out standing and now that I have ground on the piece it is very obvious that the material is very hard and solid.

There are several way that I could go about cutting this piece of Turquoise.

I generally like to think about things a while before I start cutting, but at first thought...

I would probably slice this piece in several large, but smaller pieces and grind flats on the back. Then I will back the pieces and once backed I will shape them and start cutting the tops until I have the blue to gold ratio mix and look that I want.

Left: This is another guesser... a nugget.

Yes a guesser, but because of my experience with this mine and material. I would wager this is going to be quite a nice piece of Turquoise when cut.

I know to the untrained eye this piece probably does not look like much.

But there are some clues. Look at the blue and how it is distributed in the piece.

Look at the gold matrix. All this material is solid and again the piece of Turquoise is fairly heavy for it's size.

What to you think? Good? Bad? See below...

Left: This is the nugget faced.

Yes, this is a real winner. As a matter of fact this is out standing.

When ever you see nuggets that look like "sea foam" and that are solid. It is a good guess that the stone will be a nice one.

A point I want to make here is that I would not cut this Turquoise all the way down to a flat. I would cut it to help improve the sea foam look.

Which means that I will cut this to reveal the color and the matrix, but I will leave this nugget, like a nugget and leave some dips and swells on the finished cab to create the look.

Left: This a layer of Kingman Turquoise and to some people a total guesser?

No, not really a guesser at all to me. This piece is actually pretty easy to read if you know what to look for.

OK, what should you be looking at?

Notice that the blue material is solid and the same thickness around that entire piece of rough.

Also notice that the brow/gold matrix is not only the top and bottom (the surrounding rock before the vein was mined) but that the matrix color does

appear to go through the blue of the Turquoise.

Left: This is a layer of Kingman.

As I said note the layer of Turquoise has fairly hard solid host rock/matrix on both sides.

This is often an indication that the vein of Turquoise will be solid. I do not know why, but in my experience usually if the vein of Turquoise is formed in hard host rock the vein of Turquoise itself tends to be harder and better cutting quality.

There are no 100% rules, but in general this has been my experience.

It has some thing to do with how the Turquoise forms.

Left: This is a layer of Kingman faced..

As you can see this piece of Turquoise is solid and very nice now that I have faced the top of the layer on a grinding wheel.

This piece should be backed before cutting. I will gently face the other side of this layer because it is thick enough to do so.

Once I have both sides faced I will select the faced side that I thinks is the best ratio of Turquoise to matrix and back the opposite side and cut the the selected side.

This piece will finish out a very nice stone...

Left: This is a layer of Kingman.

Ok, how about a piece of Turquoise that has no matrix...

This piece is not actually all that typical of Kingman Turquoise, although it is Kingman and came in the same parcel and mining area as the pieces above.

What you want in a sold color piece of Turquoise is for the piece to again feel heavy for the size.

You do not want any white or gray areas. You want the material to be a continuous solid pleasing color.

In the old days a lot of this no matrix sea foam type of nugget Turquoise was tumble polished and them polished with black jewelers rouge. The black rouge filled the crevices and made the nugget have a spider web effect.

Left: This is the sea foam nugget no matrix faced.

This piece of Turquoise as you can see is a very pretty solid blue green and will make a nice cab.

I like solid color pieces of Turquoise about as well as any other material and I think in some specific uses the solid color of a stone like this is actually more striking and preferable to Turquoise with matrix.

This of course is where personal taste and preference come in.

But I think that anybody that likes Turquoise will appreciate the pieces in this article and I hope that when people read this article they will learn some thing. Remember in the game of Turquoise, there are never any certainties. You can always get a surprise, some times good some times bad. But learning how to read the Turquoise rough will improve your odds.

Just Ask Jeff Index

E-mail to inquire or order: jeff @ faceters.com or jeff @ cabbers.com