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Stone Scales? Let's (I'll) find out...
So here it is- the age old (not really) question... Can scales be made successfully and functionally from stone?
I am going to try- kind of. I am not using just any 'stone' that you can get; I am using reconstituted stone (Imperial Jade to be exact). It is "produced from approximately 85% natural stone ore. The ore is pigmented, compressed into blocks and impregnated with approximately 15% acrylic gem resin." I have already cut the scale shapes out roughly. The material creates a lot of dust. It is maybe not as heavy as a real piece of Jade would be, but I'm not sure. The slabs I had were 1/4" thick, so I'll have to sand them down a lot.
One thing that is apparent is that I can snap a piece in two with a little force. Now I don't think this is out of the ordinary though since you could easily do the same with acrylic, bone, ivory, horn and even wood. I'm just used to using near unbreakable materials that will flex a lot before snapping (if you could even snap them by hand), so I'll have to see how it turns out. I may use a liner on the scales. I'll keep you posted in this thread. Here are a couple of progress pics so far.