Turquoise Inlay Source ?

[Richard Madison]

SWMBO has suggested that I do turquoise inlays on some stuff, as she says it will sell well in this area. She is usually right about these things and also has mentioned it about three times. This means that it is in my best interest to stick turquoise in stuff PDQ.

So the questions are where to you get your turquoise, sizes or grades, acceptable substitute like Inlace, etc.? Thanks for your help.

[Robert Snowden]

There is a member here that sells it Gary Max.Craft Supplies also has a good slection.Gary Max has whole rocks and crushed.

[Tony Pridmore]

http://www.gilmerrockshop.com (http://www.gilmerrockshop.com/) is another alternative. Great service.

[Al Wasser]

+1 for Gilmer. You may want to order the powder and the sand.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I get mine from CSUSA or Gilmer.

[Cathy Schaewe]

I get mine here:
http://www.arizonasilhouette.com/Crushed_Stone.htm

[Richard Madison]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Exactly what I needed.

[Frank Kobilsek]

Richard,

I had been a customer of Az. Silhoutte but one day at an estate auction I picked up a beer flat full of tourquise jewelery for about 10 bucks. pulled out the stones and crushed them - all set. Not a reliable source but the cheapest if you can find it.

Frank

[Bruce Pratt]

I get my inlay materials from http://www.inlacebook.com/index.html. Lots of colors (including turquoise) and several granule/flake sizes. The stone flakes are soft enough that they can be easily ground into a fine power, if so desired. Haven't used nugget or granule sizes, so can't comment on those.
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Bruce

[Aaron Wingert]

A company called Turtle Feathers just got me hooked up with a bunch of inlace and some turquoise. Haven't used the turquoise but the inlace is great stuff! The owner is very helpful and knowledgeable. I tried to buy a big can of inlace and he suggested that I save some money and get the small can since I'm using only a little at a time....He said it would be a shame for a big can to go bad before I can use it. Very fast service.
http://www.turtlefeathers.net/text/inlace/inlace-main.html

[Richard Madison]

Thanks again guys. Frank, I like your method. How do you crush the stuff. Inlace "goes bad" if you keep it a long time??? What's it made of?

[Tom Giacomo]

This is made with a inlace blue acrylic pen blank. Poor man's turquoise.

[Gary Max]

I built a rock crusher because I was spending way to much for the 1 oz bags.
I like mixing it with 2 part epoxy it seems to hold up very well.

[Richard Madison]

Gary can you show us pictures of your rock crusher?

[Aaron Wingert]

Inlace "goes bad" if you keep it a long time??? What's it made of?

I don't know, but he indicated that it would go bad before I used it up a little at a time. As for what it is made of, not sure, but it sure smells potent.

[Bruce Pratt]

Like Gary, I use two part epoxy (System 3). Have had the bottles of "part A" and "part B" for at least 8 months, using them gradually, and had no problems. The inlace stone (barium sulfate) is easily ground with a hand mortar & pestle. It is also soft enough that it doesn't appreciably dull the gouges during turning.
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Bruce

[Richard Madison]

Thanks again all. Bruce, where do you get your "inlace stone"? I do have a couple sizes of mortar and pestle.