Welcome to Lapidary Slab

This website was developed to help catalog our inventory of lapidary slabs. We do not offer any slabs for sale at this time.

Agate

Laguna Lace Agate

Jasper

Jasper

Other

Other Rocks and Minerals

What are lapidary slabs?

Lapidary slabs are unpolished slabs of rock or minerals used for lapidary projects such as creating cabochons, carving, tumbling, faceting, knapping or other stonework. Slabs are sometimes polished for use as display specimens.

Slab Thickness

Slabs are most often cut approximately 1/4″ thick.  Slabs may be cut thicker or thinner depending on the desired end result.

Slabs may be cut thinner in order to reduce the thickness of the final cabochon. This is helpful when weight is an important factor such as when it’s used in earrings or pendants.

Slabs are sometimes cut thicker if a cabochon with a very high dome is desired.   This can be helpful when making cabochons out of translucent material when it is desirable to allow as much light as possible into the cabochon. 

Why Purchase Lapidary Slabs?

Expense of Cutting Slabs

There are several advantages to purchasing slabs over buying rough and cutting it yourself. Most lapidary equipment is expensive. Saws used to cut lapidary slabs are no exception and can cost several thousand dollars. Even the saw blades can cost hundreds of dollars.

Small trim saws are much less expensive and are used to cut slabs into a desired shape in preparation to cabbing, knapping or carving. Although trim saws are more affordable, they are not designed to cut slabs.

Finacial Risk of Cutting Slabs

Another advantage of purchasing slabs over buying rough is that the risk of buying unusable or low quality material is minimized. Since it has already been cut it’s much easier to see the patterns and colors within the stone.

Chrysocolla Stained Quartz
This rough doesn’t look like much on the outside
Chrysocolla Stained Quartz
The inside of the same rough once it’s slabed

Loss When Cutting Slabs

There is less waste when buying slabs. Each time the slab saw makes a pass through a stone the amount of stone lost matches the thickness of the saw blade. There is also losses due to imperfections or cracks in the stone as well as the areas such as the ends that cannot be cut easily into slabs.

Lapidary rough that may appear to be be desirable as rough may be completely useless once it is cut into slabs due to undesirable characteristics such as pitting, soft pockets, or poor colors or patterns.

Because much of the risk and loss has been reduced in the cutting process, slabs may cost more than ten times the cost of lapidary rough.  If it is a particularly nice slab, the price may be considerably higher, if it’s offered for sale at all.

Our Latest Slabs & Rough