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Work Process

Cutting Blanks

First a piece of "rough" is selected. I look for rough which is clean and free of pitting and excessive cracks. I then cut blanks from the rough on the diamond saw. I try and get as many bead blanks as possible this is called maximizing the yield and is never done at the expense of quality.

Drilling

A bead blank can be drilled by scribing an "X" on both sides with an aluminum point or lead pencil and then drilling through the center. I sometimes like to round the blank into a cylinder before I drill it. The drilling is done partially submerged in water using a flexible shaft tool with a diamond bit. I use a tripple ripple 1.8mm bit for most beads.

Shaping

Each bead is shaped by hand using a wooden mandrel which is placed in the hole. The bead is then turned against the wheel to shape it. The rough wheel is used to attain the initial shape. Many shapes of beads are possible but the primary ones are barrels, tubes, and roundels.

Sanding

Many hours are spent sanding groups of beads. Each bead is sanded on between 4 to 7 succesively finer grits to achieve the desired results. My favorite grits for soft material are 280, 600, 1200, and 3000 grits. But I regularly use the 80 grit, 140 grit, and 14,000 grit depending on the material.

Polishing

When all the beads are through the wheels they are ready to be polished. I use a polishing compound called zam on a muslin buff but I also polish using either optical cerium on leather or Mountain Mist which is another fine quality product. After polishing the beads are inspected for finish quality.