The Dop Sticks & The Car Detailer's Secret
For the first year and a half I just held the stones with my fingers. Big enough pieces, you can do that — freeforms, larger cabochons. Your hand is the jig. See what came out of that era → The Nickel Back Collection.
Then I found this little fragment of brecciated jasper. Wanted to make an earring out of it. That little guy chewed up my fingers something fierce. Too small to hold, too good to quit on. → The Catalyst.
I'd been putting off dop sticks. Every time I was at the rock shop somebody would ask how to keep a stone on the stick, and the owner would say superglue. I didn't want chemicals anywhere near my stones. Didn't want to risk discoloring them. That's the whole point of dopping — protect the work.
The Dop Sticks
We don't buy dop sticks. Never have. We use the wands out of plastic window blind adjusters, chopped to length. But here's the thing — it's not just that they're free. There are three reasons these things are better than anything you'd buy.
First, they're hexagonal. That grip doesn't slip in your hand at 3450 RPMs the way a round stick does. You feel in control because you are.
Second, those flat sides are reference surfaces. Mark them and you can use the stick to square your work — to orient the stone, track your angles, keep your art true. A round stick can't do that. You're just guessing.
Third — and this is the one that surprised me — they're hollow. On Frank at 1750 RPMs, you can feel the grind transmit right up through the stick. You can feel when you're cutting and you can feel when the wheel glazes. Your hand becomes a sensor. You stop guessing and start knowing.
We've never bought a commercial dop stick and I don't expect we ever will.
The Car Detailer's Secret
So I started thinking. And I went back to something I learned detailing cars years ago. When you're replacing stick-on trim, if you store the trim in the vehicle overnight and install it at the same temperature, the adhesive grabs like you wouldn't believe. Different temps and it fails — sometimes right away, sometimes a week later in the sun. Same surface temp, same adhesive temp. That's the secret.
Here's how we do it. And listen, because this part matters.
Both the dop station and the stone start at room temperature. Don't skip that. Rapid heat can fracture a stone — you'll never see it coming and you'll never forget it when it happens. Set the stone on the station cold, then turn it on. Let them warm up together. When the wax melts, they're at the same temperature. That's your moment. I've warmed and mounted five stones onto sticks in one cycle that way. Works every time.
For best results, let everything come back down to room temperature before the next round. Patience is part of the process.
Getting the Stone Off
Unlike cleaning superglue off your stone — or worse, polishing it off on the wheel — the temperature method means fifteen minutes in the freezer and a tap on the stick. The stones just fall off. Then walk over to the dop station and snap the wax right off the sticks, straight back into the pot. Ready for the next round. Nothing wasted, nothing ruined.
The Frankenstein Lapidary Line →
The Banshee Flat Lap →
Stabilizing Stone →
— Bob & Janyce, Rockhound Studio, Spokane Valley WA